Arc v. Meconi (2002)
- 2004 – The state agreed to a settlement
- 2002 – The Law Center filed a lawsuit against Delaware officials to force the state to provide and fully fund community-based services, and to close the Stockley Center – a large, restrictive, and expensive institution that kept 200 people unnecessarily segregated from the community.
In 2002, over 1,100 people with developmental disabilities in Delaware languished on a waiting list to receive community-based services, even as available community housing went unused for lack of state funding. Hundreds of those people had already been on the waiting list for years. Meanwhile, the state agencies responsible funneled people instead into large, state-run institutions.
In 2002, the Law Center filed a lawsuit against Delaware officials to force the state to provide and fully fund community-based services, and to close the Stockley Center – a large, restrictive, and expensive institution that kept 200 people unnecessarily segregated from the community. We filed the class action lawsuit, Arc v. Meconi, on behalf of nine individuals with developmental disabilities and three advocacy organizations – the Arc of Delaware, People First of Delaware, and the Homes for Life Foundation. The lawsuit fought not only against institutionalization, but also for increased funding for community-based living arrangements in order to end Delaware’s practice of keeping its most vulnerable citizens without essential services for as they waited for a community placement.
The state quickly agreed to a settlement, which was approved in 2004. In the settlement, Delaware agreed to provide greater access to community services, individualized evaluations to determine each person’s needs, and increased Medicaid funding and collaboration to better manage waiting lists, and the state agreed to begin moving residents out of the Stockley Center and into the community whenever possible.
