When the Justice Department first said, back in June, that it would no longer require states to provide community-based care for people with disabilities, it shook the disability rights community. Decades earlier, they had fought against a history of segregation in institutions and for a system of Medicaid-funded programs that serve disabled adults in their own homes and communities. Now, the Trump administration seems to be reversing course by challenging a legal principle known as the “integration mandate.”
It made me think about how an entire generation of young people had only known an America in which being integrated into their communities was standard procedure. I wondered how this action could change their lives.
Not long after the DOJ memo dropped, a message from Kaleigh Brendle landed in my colleague Hansi Lo Wang’s inbox. He passed it to the education team, and my eyes widened. Kaleigh, who’s 23, started a disability rights organization to push back against the Trump administration’s efforts to challenge the integration mandate. Kaleigh is blind and has other disabilities, so this work was personal for her.
As I chatted with Kaleigh on the phone, I could hear the voice of an impassioned advocate. Then, at one point, her voice softened, and suddenly I was listening to a sister. Kaleigh mentioned her 27-year-old brother Cody, who is blind and has autism. She said after high school, Cody was in limbo between school and what would come next for him — he was lost.
That is, until he was accepted into a Medicaid-funded community program for adults with disabilities, and Kaleigh said it was “a night-and-day change.” Cody was part of a vibrant social community of other disabled adults and was learning skills to become more independent, like job training and grocery shopping. She said the happy, energetic brother she’d always known was back.
Listening to Kaleigh, I was struck that beneath the legal story, there was the story of two siblings whose entire lives were shaped by the right to integration. She says she’s only able to go off to law school or consider becoming a parent one day, because of the integration mandate. For Cody, he finally has access to a program that he says is giving him lots of life skills, but most importantly, friendships.
They worry that all that could go away. I hope you’ll read and listen to these siblings tell their story. | 
