NY Official Visits Canton's Judge Rotenberg Educational Center

CANTON, MA - New York Assemblyman Andy Hevesi visited Canton's Judge Rotenberg Center Wednesday on behalf of Joseph Atkinson III, a resident who New York's Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPPD) has been seeking to transfer back to his home state for treatment now that he is 21.

In an interview Thursday morning, Hevesi called his visit to the Judge Rotenberg Center "an incredible experience."

"I thought that the facility was in outstanding shape," he said. He pointed out that there were game rooms, computer labs and other activities that residents can utilize as rewards on a point system for positive behavior modification.

"They earn points for amending behaviors and for showing less aggressive behaviors around other people," Hevesi added.

Hevesi said he spoke briefly with Atkinson and met other residents who also are from New York.

"I spoke with Joseph and we shook hands," he said. "It was more like him just saying hello. He was having a really good day."

NY couple fights to keep their son at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center

"You have to remember that he is living among a group of people who have behavioral patterns of self-harm and self-mutilation," Hevesi continued. "They were all very nice and sweet and trying really hard to deal with years of challenges.

"I'm still trying to emotionally process this," he added. "They are all really heroic for battling some of the most difficult challenges you can imagine."

Hevesi said some of the New York residents he met were working or receiving job training at the facility.

"That is the kind of progress we are trying to protect," he stressed. "We need to protect that like a jewel. We are fighting every action for the removal of these students, because we cannot have the government interfere with their progress."

Hevesi said he was aware of the criticism against the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center for its use of the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED), which allows staff to administer electric shocks to residents via a remote control device to correct aggressive behavior. It is in the only facility in the country to use electric shock treatments.

However, he focused on the positive experience he had with the residents and staff members, who he called "heroic" for their work with children and adults who can exhibit violent behaviors due to their disabilities.

In early March 2020, the Food and Drug Administration took the rare step of banning the GED device, only the third such ban in the agency's history, saying that the harm caused outweighed any medical benefit it could bring.

However, a federal appeals court overturned the decision by a 2-1 vote, allowing the Judge Rotenberg Center to continue its use to correct aggressive behavior.

Canton school can continue to use electric shock device, federal court rules

Hevesi, who does not represent the district in which Joseph's parents, Michele and Joseph Atkinson, live, said he became involved in the situation because he believed that a 2014 law in New York was being violated.

"The OPWDD had contacted a couple of parents of students there to try to move them to a facility in upstate New York that is much more restrictive," he said. "It is their belief that students should be transferred back to his home state after they turn 21. The law allows the parents to have a hearing before a judge to have due process in advocating for their children to stay where they are."

In February 2015, Hevesi was named Chairman of the Assembly Social Services Committee, which is responsible for providing oversight of programs administered by the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) and analyzing the state’s multi-billion dollar funding allotment for social services each fiscal year.

He avesi added that he met with one of the families yesterday who was the impetus behind this law.

"The decision prevents students from being transferred inappropriately without due process," he said. "The OPWDD believed there are outliers to this law."

In news reports, the Atkinsons have said that they want to keep Joseph at an adult program at the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center because he has flourished while being under its care. He has been able to work, make friends and go to the prom, possibilities they believed would have been impossible because his severe autism had caused him to have violent outbursts.

"Trying to harm the animals, trying to harm me and my wife, breaking things, windows, TVs, and he really couldn't help himself," his father said in news reports.

Hevesi said there has been movement since Atkinson's story has been made public to work toward a resolution with the OPWDD and New York officials to keep residents where they are receiving appropriate care. He noted that New York does not have a comparable facility to the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center.

"Now the OPWDD is working with officials to resolve this issue for these families," he said. "We are working with the new administration in New York, which is more amenable to work in collaboration with us and the families. I expect progress relatively soon."

He added that "the most pressing thing is that these kids don't be put in a position where they regress."

Part of the problem, he explained, was that under the previous administration of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, "the system underfunded programs for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities."

"Now we don't have enough beds in New York," he said.

The state does provide funding for some students with disabilities to receive treatment out-of-state, Hevesi noted.

"But you have got to be careful, because there are different funding streams for different disabilities," he added.

"In the short term, I want to find relief for these families," Hevesi said. "In the long-term, I believe the potential is there to really take a look at making the system work. Gov. [Kathy] Hochul has been fostering that."

The Judge Rotenberg Educational Center has not reponded to press requests seeking comment.