Opinion ID: 480752
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Obligations of Defendants

Text: 13 7. The defendants will provide to each member of the plaintiff class habilitation tailored to the person's individual needs. In meeting the habilitation needs of members of the plaintiff class, the individual's particular circumstances, including age, degree of retardation and handicapping conditions, will be taken into account. Habilitation is that education, training and care required by each plaintiff class member to improve and develop the person's level of social and intellectual functioning, designed to maximize skills and development and to enhance ability to cope with the environment, and provided in the setting which is least restrictive of the person's liberty. Defendants will provide habilitation services necessary to meet the needs of plaintiff class members until such time as they no longer require services under this Resolution and Settlement. 14 8. Defendants will provide each member of the plaintiff class with the least restrictive alternative living conditions possible consistent with the person's particular circumstances, including age, degree of retardation and handicapping conditions. Consistent with the person's capacities, each member of the plaintiff class will be taught adequate skills to help the person progress within the environment and to live as independently as possible. Services will be offered with utmost regard for the class member's dignity and personal autonomy. 15 Record at 179 (Vol. I). 16 Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 5547-203 Sec. 3.01A (Vernon Supp.1986) provides: 17 Community centers created pursuant to this Act are intended to be vital components in a continuum of services for the mentally ill and mentally retarded individuals of this state. It is the policy of this state that community centers strive to develop services for the mentally ill and mentally retarded that are effective alternatives to treatment in large residential facilities. 18 Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 5547-300 Sec. 15 (Vernon Supp.1986) provides: 19 Each client shall have the right to live in the least restrictive habilitation setting appropriate to the individual's needs and be treated and served in the least intrusive manner appropriate to the individual's needs. 20 Recognizing the decisive impact of the foregoing state law, the July 21, 1983 district court Order approving the Resolution and Settlement states more than once that paragraphs 7 and 8 are governed by state law. 6 The district court observed that each of these provisions [of the R & S] effectuates rights explicitly protected by Texas law (if not implicitly by federal law), including those provisions concerning individual service plans and 'least restrictive alternative' living arrangements.... Record at 205 (Vol. I). The court noted that, [a]lthough more detailed and far-reaching rights--including the right to habilitation in the least restrictive alternative living arrangement--have been located by district courts in the federal constitution and federal law, in this case it is likely that all such relief could and would have been predicated upon the more explicit Texas statutes. Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 5547-300 et. seq. Record at 215 (Vol. I) (citations omitted). As the district court recognized, state law confers on the class members, and on all other residents of state institutions for the mentally retarded, the right to live in the least restrictive setting. Because this is the right recognized in the Resolution and Settlement and enforced in the court's Order of June 5, 1985, that order plainly contravenes Pennhurst II unless some constitutional or federal right requires similar relief. 7 21