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Pro Bono Reporter Volume 21 Summer 2016 15
Chicago TeamNegotiates Expansive Education Plan for 8
th
Grader with
Complex LearningDisabilities
Associates
Karalena Guerrieri
and
Ayush Garg
, under the supervision of partner
Megan Devaney
, represent a parent of an eighth grade boy with an Individualized
Education Plan who has struggled academically and socially in grade school
and who was hospitalized recently for suicidal statements. The student has a
complex diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder, communication disorder, and chronic tic
disorder. Although he has been diagnosed and struggles with social expression,
writing, and completing homework assignments, the school denied him speech
and occupational therapy services for at least three years and, as a result, he
is reluctant to attend school. The Winston team was able to confirm through
independent experts his difficulties with verbal expression, his need for intense
speech and language services, and his difficulty with writing. The school ultimately
agreed to restore the student’s consultative speech services between the speech
pathologist and several of the student’s teachers, provide enrollment in a social
skills group with a school social worker, provide a computer for take-home use, and
made several other minor classroom modifications.
Chicago Team Wins Preliminary Injunction Restoring Medical Services for
Disabled Children
A Chicago team comprised of partner
Ray Perkins
, associates
Bryce Cooper
and
Ali Schaller,
paralegal
Alissa
Hodgson
, and graphics designer
Josh Ryder
won hearings on crucial preliminary injunction and class certification
motions in the firm’s representation of a class of Medicaid-eligible children against the Illinois Department of
Healthcare and Family Services (HFS).
The lawsuit arose out of drastic service reductions implemented by HFS, which had previously approved more
than 1,200 children for home nursing services based on their high level of medical need. Many of these children
are dependent on complex medical regimens for routine bodily functions, such as eating, drinking, breathing, and
oxygen regulation. But in 2014, Illinois began to work with a third-party contractor to review children’s nursing cases
and drastically reduced services. Of the first 178 children reviewed, HFS found that 98% were no longer eligible
for their previously approved service levels; 66% were told that they would not receive any nursing services. The
lawsuit challenges the due process notice violations of HFS, as well as the legality of such reductions, claiming that
the class of children still have significant medical needs and severe impairments that require home nursing services
to avoid more costly hospitalizations.
After a preliminary injunction hearing that included cross-examination of an HFS witness and argument by the
Winston team, a federal district court issued an order that prevents further service reductions to Medicaid-eligible
children who need home nursing services without judicial approval. Additionally,
the order requires HFS to restore home nursing services that were previously
reduced or terminated. The court underscored the risk of harm to affected
children without this order: “Stated simply, monetary damages after trial will not
be an adequate remedy… [t]here is a significant risk, that without proper in-home
care or care at an institution … plaintiffs and class members can and will likely
suffer severe life-threatening medical episodes.”
Bryce Cooper
Karalena Guerrieri