Rhode Island Consent Decree and Integrated Employment for People with Disabilities

The Decree That Changed Everything

In 2014, Rhode Island entered into a landmark consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice that fundamentally restructured how adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities access employment and day services. The case arose from findings that the state had been funneling people with disabilities into segregated sheltered workshops — facilities where workers performed repetitive tasks for sub-minimum wages, isolated from the broader community.

The decree required Rhode Island to shift its developmental disability service system over a ten-year period, moving away from congregate day programs and sheltered workshops toward competitive integrated employment and individualized community-based services. It was one of the first statewide consent decrees of its kind in the country, and it directly shapes what services are available to your child when they exit the school system.

What "Integrated Employment" Means

Under the consent decree, integrated employment means a real job in the community — not a sheltered workshop, not an enclave of disabled workers at a single employer, and not an unpaid "volunteer" placement. The standard is:

• Work performed in a setting where the majority of coworkers do not have disabilities
• Compensation at or above the minimum wage (or the prevailing wage for the position)
• Opportunities for advancement and career development
• Support services (job coaching, transportation, accommodations) provided as needed

The decree's target was to move individuals from segregated settings into these integrated positions, with the state providing the supported employment services through BHDDH-funded providers to make it work.

For transition-age families, this has concrete implications. When your child exits school and enters the adult service system through BHDDH, the default expectation is now integrated community employment — not a day program that looks like the sheltered workshops of the past. Your child's Individual Support Plan should prioritize competitive employment goals, and the BHDDH caseworker should connect you with supported employment providers who specialize in job development, coaching, and workplace integration.

The 2025 Youth Behavioral Health Decree

Rhode Island entered a second, separate consent decree on January 7, 2025, this time with both the DOJ and the Department of Health and Human Services. This decree addresses civil rights violations related to youth psychiatric hospitalizations — specifically, findings that young people with behavioral health disabilities were being kept in hospital settings longer than medically necessary because community-based alternatives weren't available.

The 2025 decree established:

• Intensive community-based services designed to prevent unnecessary hospitalizations
• Transition coordinators assigned to youth leaving psychiatric facilities
• Requirements to divert youth with behavioral health needs to integrated family and community settings

While the 2014 decree primarily affects the employment and day services landscape for adults with intellectual/developmental disabilities, the 2025 decree matters for transition-age youth with behavioral health conditions who are moving from hospital or residential settings back into school-based or community-based programming.

Together, the two decrees mean that Rhode Island's transition planning must now be coordinated across RIDE, ORS, BHDDH, and Medicaid — with federal monitoring ensuring compliance. Families have legal backing to demand integrated services rather than accepting congregate or segregated placements.

How the Decree Affects Your Child's Transition Plan

When the IEP team develops postsecondary goals for employment, the consent decree's framework should inform those goals. Specifically:

Employment goals should target integrated settings. If a provider or school suggests a sheltered workshop or sub-minimum-wage placement, that conflicts with the decree's mandate. You can push back with the legal framework on your side.

Day services should emphasize community participation. The decree moved Rhode Island away from large congregate day programs toward individualized community-based activities — volunteering, skill-building in community settings, and social participation alongside non-disabled peers.

Supported employment services are available. BHDDH-funded providers offer job development (finding positions matched to the individual's interests and abilities), job coaching (on-site support during the initial weeks and months), and ongoing follow-along services to maintain employment stability.

Self-directed services are an option. Under the consent decree's push toward individualized budgets, individuals who choose self-direction can hire their own employment support staff and design services around their specific goals, rather than fitting into a provider's existing program slots.

What Compliance Looks Like Today

The 2014 consent decree has moved through its original ten-year period and into final extensions aimed at achieving substantial compliance. Monitoring reports — publicly available through BHDDH's consent decree page — track metrics including the number of individuals in integrated employment, average hours worked, wage levels, and the reduction of segregated placements.

Progress has been uneven. Some individuals have moved into competitive jobs with stable coaching support. Others remain in day programs that look different from the old sheltered workshops but still fall short of true integration. Families should be aware that the decree gives them leverage to advocate for their child's right to integrated options, even when a provider's default offering is a group-based day program.

Planning Around the Decree

The consent decree doesn't appear in most IEP transition checklists or state agency brochures, but it sits behind everything. When you're evaluating adult service providers, touring day programs, or reviewing your child's ISP, the decree's mandate for integrated, competitive employment is the baseline you should measure against.

The Rhode Island IEP Transition to Adulthood Guide covers the full agency-managed vs. self-directed service comparison, including how the consent decree's integration requirements shape the options available to families exiting the school system.

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