AUSTIN, Texas — The Texas Legislature is set to convene in the new year, and lawmakers are already drafting bills that advocates are pushing to expand services for people with disabilities.
The Rothe family’s living environment is unique.
The family moved from North Texas to Williamson County after their son was accepted to the University of Texas at Austin. They wanted to be closer to him because of his muscular dystrophy.
But families struggled to find full-time care workers, in part due to the state’s low minimum wage for home care workers. As a result, Jessica Rothe’s husband lives on campus with their son, now a senior, and helps with the day-to-day tasks.
“It would have been better if we could have hired someone to help him grow and become a functioning adult,” Rothe said.
Last legislative session, Texas lawmakers raised the minimum wage for home care workers from $8 an hour to $10.60 an hour. This is lower than the income of care workers in state facilities.
A bill to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour has been proposed ahead of the 2025 legislative session, and Scott Daigle of the Texas Council on Developmental Disabilities believes it will pass.
“It’s cheaper to keep them living their daily lives in the community than to put them in a facility that has far more services and costs more,” Daigle said.
Raising the minimum wage for community care providers is one of about 20 bills introduced so far that address issues that people with disabilities face every day. San Antonio state Sen. Jose Menendez has proposed a bill that would require public transit agencies to receive training on how to support passengers with intellectual and physical disabilities.
“Whatever device you use to move, it needs to be securely fixed in place so it doesn’t slide or move. If you haven’t been trained on how to do this properly, it can leave someone feeling anxious or scared. It could make them feel like they’re at risk,” Menendez said.
Advocates of bills to help people with disabilities say these proposals are important because discrimination still exists.
Representative Mary Gonzalez of El Paso has proposed a bill she hopes will alleviate this. If passed, his bill would require childcare workers to interview families to find out what kind of support a child needs before refusing care.
“I think sometimes we think it’s unattainable, but sometimes we can make small changes, both in institutions and in society, that are inclusive and accessible to everyone,” González said. Ta.
