. . . . Amid all the partisan attacks on state schools, now known as State Supported Living Centers, the one element lost sight of was how do you provide the most appropriate care for individuals at all levels of need? Those who have been trying to close the Schools/Centers have attempted to demonize the workers who provide care. Given that direct care workers at state schools are low-income and at most schools/centers overwhelmingly minority, these attacks reveal an all too typical class and racial bias that allows those most responsible for the real problems to escape accountability. The legislature did make a gesture toward the staffing problem by authorizing DADS to hire up to 2,320 new employees over the next two years. It did not, however, actually mandate that the positions be filled. In the end, they chose to do nothing about the other central problems of low-pay and high turnover rate. While we fully support the raises received by our brothers and sisters in TDCJ and TYC, it is revealing that legislators evidently did not see the crisis in care for the developmentally disabled in as urgent a light as the crisis in criminal justice care.
. . . . We will fight for the allocated positions to be filled and feel that the vast majority of those positions must be direct care positions. If there aren’t enough people on the floor to actually carry out the work that is needed all the directives and plans in the world are ineffective. We will also fight for a targeted raise for direct care workers on top of a decent raise for all state workers. Turnover will never get better unless there are enough staff to end forced overtime and unless folks are actually making a wage that enables them to support their families.