State Legislation

Enacted in June 2016, this legislation mandates that the Governor’s Workforce Board create and expand job and career opportunities for individuals with intellectual, developmental, or other significant disabilities while producing a strategic statewide employment and training plan for the state. The law directs the Board to structure the plan over a period of two fiscal years and produce a comprehensive analysis of all workforce development activities in Rhode Island in order to identify strategies to improve statewide employment, including for individuals with IDD.

The bill was held for further study by the state house in March 2016, but it was not taken up again. This legislation would have required the Rhode Island Council on Postsecondary Education to direct all public colleges to establish and maintain an office that assists students with disabilities with needs related to their education. The offices in question must provide support with all “academic, social, living and career-planning” aspects of postsecondary education in order to ensure that students are able to participate and succeed to the same extent as their peers.

Bill was reported from committee in March 2019, but did not pass the House. This bill would have secured $2 million to support courses for resident full-time students enrolled in comprehensive transition and postsecondary (CPT) programs in North Carolina. The legislation, which would be entitled "Catherine's Law", draws money from the North Carolina General Fund, and would support the three CTPs within the University of North Carolina system at UNC Greensboro, Western Carolina University, and Appalachian State University.

Introduced in March 2019, this bill directs the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to create the Texas Students with Disabilities Scholarship Program, which would provide assistance to students with disabilities at Texas public higher education institutions. To be eligible for the proposed scholarship, students must be enrolled in an associate or baccalaureate degree or a certificate program.

Introduced in 2019, but not passed, this bill would require that at least two Minnesota state colleges and universities offer an academic program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The Board of Trustees of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities must select the specific institutions, who will have admit at least 15 incoming students to their new postsecondary program for students with IDD each year. The programs must offer an inclusive, two-year full-time residential experience to students and should enable them to engage fully in campus life.

This law enacted in June 2019 directs the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to create an advisory council on postsecondary education for persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The advisory council will be tasked with developing educational outreach materials to raise awareness in Texas of PSE opportunities for individuals with IDD, and the Board will be responsible for distributing them.

Two identical bills introduced in January 2019, these would prohibit postsecondary institutions from denying a student residential housing on campus or an affiliated location solely because the student has received a Tennessee STEP UP scholarship. STEP UP is a state scholarship that supports students with intellectual disabilities who finish high school and enroll in a CTP at the University of Tennessee, the University of Memphis, Vanderbilt University, Lipscomb University, or Union University.

A bill introduced in January 2019, this legislation would have established terms for the South Carolina Promise Scholarship Program, which would enable students from the general population (not just those with disabilities) to receive a postsecondary education scholarship. Recipients must be enrolled for at least six credit hours and must have a high school or equivalent within two years of applying for the scholarship. They must also maintain a 2.0 GPA and may not have already received a bachelor’s degree.

This bill, expired in 2019, would have required the Governor of Maryland to include funding in the annual state budget for a new competitive grant program that will fund supplemental services and supports for students with disabilities at Maryland community colleges. The funding amount in the budget would be at least $2,500,000 each year, beginning in FY 2021, and the grant program would be administered by the Maryland Higher Education Commission.