Nevada, Segregating Children with Disabilities, Nevada 2026

Nevada has been brought to justice for segregating children with disabilities, isolating them in hospitals and residential treatment facilities far from their homes. Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Civil Rights Division said, ‘Children with disabilities deserve to live with their families and in the communities they call home.’

The Justice Department announced that it secured a settlement agreement with the State of Nevada to resolve the department’s findings that Nevada violates the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Supreme Court’s decision in Olmstead v. L.C. by unnecessarily segregating children with behavioral health disabilities.

Under the ADA and the Olmstead decision, states must administer their services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs. This agreement, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada, will allow Nevada’s children with behavioral health disabilities to access the services they need without being forced to leave their homes, schools, and communities.

The agreement includes several key commitments from Nevada, including screening and assessing children who may have a behavioral health disability, providing service coordination, and increasing access to home- and community-based services such as wraparound facilitation, mobile crisis and stabilization services, respite care, individual and family therapy, behavioral support services, family peer support and youth peer support.

Nevada will also improve diversion and transition processes to ensure children with behavioral health disabilities are being diverted from, and transitioned as quickly as possible from, segregated placements. The state will strengthen its quality assurance and performance improvement system.

An independent reviewer will evaluate Nevada’s compliance with the agreement, ensuring that the state is meeting its commitments to end the segregation of children with disabilities. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division has been a leader in enforcing the Olmstead decision, securing agreements with states to ensure that people with disabilities receive the services they need in the most integrated setting possible.

Additional information about the Civil Rights Division is available at www.justice.gov/crt. The Department looks forward to partnering with Nevada as it implements this agreement and ushers in a new era of meaningful reform.

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