§ 8724. Principles of service

Services provided to people with developmental disabilities and their families shall foster and adhere to the following principles:

(1) Children’s services. Children, regardless of the severity of their disability, need families and enduring relationships with adults in a nurturing home environment. The quality of life of children with developmental disabilities, their families, and communities is enhanced by caring for children within their own homes. Children with disabilities benefit by growing up in their own families, families benefit by staying together, and communities benefit from the diversity that is provided when people with varying abilities are included.

(2) Adult services. Adults, regardless of the severity of their disability, can make decisions for themselves, can live in typical homes, and can contribute as citizens to the communities where they live.

(3) Full information. In order to make good decisions, people with developmental disabilities and their families need complete information about the availability, choices, and costs of services; how the decision-making process works; and how to participate in that process.

(4) Individualized support. People with developmental disabilities have differing abilities, needs, and goals. To be effective and efficient, services must be individualized to the capacities, needs, and values of each individual.

(5) Family support. Effective family support services shall be designed and provided with respect and responsiveness to the unique needs, strengths, and cultural values of each family and the family’s expertise regarding its own needs.

(6) Meaningful choices. People with developmental disabilities and their families cannot make good decisions without meaningful choices about how they live and the kinds of services they receive. Effective services shall be flexible so they can be individualized to support and accommodate personalized choices, values, and needs and ensure that each recipient is directly involved in decisions that affect that person‘s life.

(7) Community participation. When people with disabilities are segregated from community life, all Vermonters are diminished. Community participation is increased when people with disabilities meet their everyday needs through resources available to all members of the community.

(8) Employment. The goal of job support is to obtain and maintain paid employment in regular employment settings.

(9) Accessibility. Services must be geographically available so that people with developmental disabilities and their families are not required to move to gain access to needed services, thereby forfeiting natural community support systems.

(10) Health and safety. The safety and health of people with developmental disabilities is of paramount concern.

(11) Trained staff. In order to ensure that the goals of this chapter are attained, all individuals who provide services to people with developmental disabilities and their families must receive training as required by section 8731 of this title.

(12) Fiscal integrity. The fiscal stability of the service system is dependent upon skillful and frugal management and sufficient resources to meet the needs of Vermonters with developmental disabilities. (Added 1995, No. 174 (Adj. Sess.), § 1; amended 2023, No. 6, § 212, eff. July 1, 2023.)