by Michelle Diament | July 30, 2019
The U.S. Department of Justice is on the hot seat amid attempts to allocate funding intended to address the needs of kids with autism and other developmental disabilities who wander.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is pressuring the agency to follow through on its obligations under Kevin and Avonte’s Law.
The law, which was signed last year, called for $2 million annually through 2022 for grants to local law enforcement and nonprofit agencies. The money can be used to provide electronic tracking devices to families of those at risk of wandering or for education, training, notification systems and other efforts to prevent or better respond to elopement.
However, Schumer’s office said that rather than make funding available to local agencies as called for in Kevin and Avonte’s Law, the Justice Department folded the wandering program into a larger grant for a national center to improve police response to people with mental health conditions as well as intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Read on at Disability Scoop…
