Chipping Away at Lanterman Act

There is new cause for concern about the future of the Lanterman Act, the law that breathes life into the community-based living of developmentally disabled children and adults at the same time that it spells out protections for their legal, civil and service rights.

Passed in 1969, expanded in 1973, the Lanterman Act is a state law that has been honored, almost from its inception, as much in the breach as in practice.

However, the chipping away of its protective shield has been due usually to changing times and to the way the system may have gone awry naturally. Until now.

Presently, Gov. George Deukmejian seeks to eliminate the California Area Boards. These boards are one of the resources created by the Lanterman Act to keep the system of care on track. Accordingly, California has 13 such boards each with 17 members representing neighboring communities and geographically located to better catch the pulse of local needs.

What I like about area boards is their independent status. They are enabled by law to monitor how well designated agencies are delivering services to clients. It seems to me that the official attention area boards are able to give to monitoring programs and to advocating for services affords my own mentally retarded adult son, other sons and daughters as well, a better chance to receive needed programs.

It speaks well of the Lanterman Act, too, that, in its own small way, it mirrors the checks and balances established in the Constitution of the United States. For area boards were set up to serve as a check on the system of care while lending a balance to conflicting interests.

If area boards, which are legally mandated entities, can be blue-penciled by the governor, what will be lined out next? The fear is there that this is the first step in dismantling the Lanterman Act.

In any case, changes in the law ought to be accomplished legislatively, not single-handedly. A disregard for law and for the legislative process is particularly unacceptable this year because we celebrate the law in the Bicentennial of our Constitution.

I respectfully request Gov. Deukmejian to reconsider: Let the developmental disabilities area boards keep their rightful place in the official network of services and protections serving California’s developmental disabled citizens.

MURIEL COHEN

Los Angeles