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Families of children with disabilities file lawsuit over unannounced home visits

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – Ohio families have again filed a lawsuit against the state Department of Developmental Disabilities, this time regarding unannounced home visits. 

Local parents filed a legal challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court last week against the state department and several county boards of developmental disabilities it oversees, including those of Wood, Stark and Wayne counties. The filing asks the court to halt county boards' unannounced home inspections, which plaintiffs argue were never properly authorized by law and are illegal.

“The law is clear: There is no statutory basis for these surprise inspections,” said Michela Huth, an attorney representing the families. “Families should be given proper notice about what is required of them. These inspections disrupt the lives of people with developmental disabilities and enable the government to look into the private lives of everyone living in the home.”

The state agency requires those who receive home care through a Medicaid waiver to submit to unannounced inspections, and county boards of developmental disabilities have enforced this guidance as if it “has the force and effect of law,” the filing claims. 

“The unannounced inspections – and even the constant threat of them – have left families feeling as though they are living under a government microscope,” said Lindsey Sodano, an advocate for parent caregivers who assisted in organizing the lawsuit. “Families report feeling violated, anxious and powerless, knowing that a government official could show up at any time to start taking notes on everything that happens in their home.”

Sodano was involved in another lawsuit filed in December against the state agency over a department rule that repeatedly attempts to replace paid parent caregivers with outside providers. While there are anonymous plaintiffs in both lawsuits, the individuals that publicly appear in the first lawsuit are different from those in the second. 

Multiple examples of unannounced home visits were given in the most recent lawsuit. Plaintiffs Bethany Joyal-Cousin and Matthew Cousin provide home services to an individual with developmental disabilities. In a February 2024 incident, an employee of the Wayne County Board of Developmental Disabilities arrived unannounced at their home while they – and the individual in their care who had a waiver – were not there. 

When Joyal-Cousin’s minor daughter answered the door, the worker repeatedly attempted to persuade the child to let her inside, the lawsuit alleges. 

“I was so, so thankful that I have trained my kids not to let anyone in,” Joyal-Cousin told NBC4. “Trying to get minor children to let them in the house when their guardian and parents were not home, when the individual that they wanted to see was not home, there was no waiver recipient at home at all at that point – it should have stopped immediately.”

In August, plaintiff Catherine Smith, the mother of a child with developmental disabilities, was subjected to an unannounced home inspection by a Stark County official.

The worker arrived at Smith’s home and demanded entrance while she had friends over for dinner, despite the fact that no Medicaid waiver services were being provided at the time, the lawsuit alleges.

The state employee noted how she waited several minutes for Smith to open the door, as well as information that was unrelated to the child’s services including private family interactions. Smith was not informed that she must consent to unannounced home visits as a condition of her child receiving Medicaid waiver services, according to the filing. 

“It caused a lot of post anxiety and trauma, I’m not gonna lie, because I felt like they were just kind of treating us like criminals,” Smith said. “It's just really sad that this population is being treated like this.”

The lawsuit cites a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Olmstead v. L.C., which gave people with developmental disabilities the right to live at home instead of in an institutional setting if they choose. The filing states that those with disabilities often choose to receive Medicaid waiver services at home so they have more personal privacy, and unannounced home visits take away that option for privacy.

“Of course, these unannounced inspections don't just target the Medicaid waiver recipients; they affect everyone in the household,” Sodano said. “Family members, roommates and even visiting friends are subject to these invasive inspections. Essentially, if you live in a home where a person receives Medicaid waiver services, your privacy is compromised – even if you have no direct connection to those services.”

The legal filing also points to the Ohio Revised Code, which grants those with developmental disabilities the right to privacy in their “living environment,” as well as the right to “be treated equally as citizens under the law.”

The Ohio Department of Developmental Disabilities said it does not comment on pending litigation and declined to discuss its home visitation guidance.

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