Statement of the Department of Justice on Application of the Integration Mandate of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act and Olmstead v. L.C. to State and Local Governments’ Employment Service Systems for Individuals with Disabilities

9. Is the ADA limited to segregation in employment settings when the same individuals are also subject to segregation in other settings during the day, like facility-based day programs?

A:  No. The ADA and the integration mandate have a broad reach; Title II of the ADA covers all services, programs, and activities of state and local government entities. For example, the integration mandate covers residential, employment, and day services provided by a state. If individuals with disabilities are unnecessarily segregated in sheltered workshops for part of the day and in segregated facility-based day programs for other parts of the day or week, such persons may be unnecessarily segregated in both sheltered workshops and facility-based day programs in violation of the ADA and Olmstead. It also violates the civil rights of individuals with disabilities, under the ADA and Olmstead, when such persons are unnecessarily segregated in facility-based day programs for all of their daytime hours.>

Moreover, public entities cannot evade their Olmstead obligations by limiting access to one segregated setting while moving individuals into a different segregated setting.⁴⁰ For example, a state could not cease referrals of individuals with disabilities to sheltered workshops while instead referring those individuals to facility-based day or other segregated day programs, or transferring individuals out of the sheltered workshops and into the facility-based day programs (a process known as trans-institutionalization or re-institutionalization), without providing access to alternative services, programs, and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate.