02:41 PM PDT on Tuesday, June 29, 2004

By KARIN CZULIK / KING5.com

SEATTLE – A federal investigation has determined that the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) violated federal rules when it forced Fircrest School's profoundly disabled residents to move involuntarily.

DSHS has until this Friday to file a "Plan of Correction" with the federal agency - the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - and to implement it by August 16.

Family members of residents were disappointed when in March 2004, a King County Superior Court judge had ruled in favor of the state in a dispute with families of developmentally disabled people at Fircrest in Shoreline.

KING Concerned friends and family have picketed over the closure.

The ruling meant that DSHS could continue to move residents against the wishes of their families.

CMS cited DSHS for moving residents en masse based not upon their best interests, but upon which cottage they lived in at Fircrest; failing to consider the proximity of the client's family; discharging residents without the consent of the parents and guardians and denying them a formal appeal hearing; and transferring at least one resident contrary to the recommendations of her treatment team.

"For months, we have been fighting these evictions as illegal and harmful to the residents," said Jim Hardman, member of Friends of Fircrest and guardian for five Fircrest residents who were involuntarily moved, in a press release. "Finally, the federal watchdog agency has stepped in and told DSHS this inhumane and illegal treatment must stop."

Fircrest School is one of five state centers for individuals with profound mental retardation and other severe developmental disabilities.

The state's other residential centers are Frances Haddon Morgan Center, Bremerton; Rainier School, Buckley; Yakima Valley School, Selah; and Lakeland Village, Medical Lake.

In all, DSHS moved 43 Fircrest residents, including at least 11 without guardians' consent.

According to DSHS, the number of people residing in state institutions for the developmentally disabled has declined, but the number of people receiving paid services in community settings in Washington has grown to about 23,000.

The Legislature therefore directed DSHS to consolidate vacancies within the state's five Residential Habilitation Centers during the 2003-2005 biennium in order to downsize Fircrest School.

Under the legislative mandate, Fircrest was required to close a total of four cottages and decrease its population by approximately 60 clients.

DSHS enacted the emergency rule without public notice on December 24, 2003. DSHS cited budgetary constraints as the basis for the emergency rule.

DSHS plans to close a third Fircrest cottage and move 14 residents by September, and close another cottage by next March.

A public hearing is scheduled for July 6 at 10 a.m. in the Blake Office Park, Rose Room, 4500 10th Avenue SE, Lacey, Wash.