Current Olmstead Plan
Update December 2024: Please see the final, published 2025-2027 District Olmstead Plan.
What Is Olmstead?
In 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law, prohibiting state and local governments from discriminating against people with disabilities by excluding them from participating in, or receiving benefits from, government services, programs, or activities. The ADA requires state and local governments to administer services, programs, and activities in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of qualified individuals with disabilities. This is often called the ADA’s “Integration mandate.”
The first case to challenge this integration mandate was, Olmstead v. L.C., in which the Supreme Court ruled that people with disabilities have the right to live and receive care in the community rather than in an institutional setting. In this 1999 decision, the Supreme Court also indicated that states could have a “comprehensive, effective working plan” to demonstrate compliance with the ADA’s integration mandate. These plans are often referred to as “Olmstead plans.”
Under Olmstead, states must demonstrate that they are able to provide services to people with disabilities in integrated settings, within certain limits:
- the person must want community-based services;
- the person’s treatment team must consider community-based services appropriate;
- and it must be reasonable to accommodate the community-based services, taking into account state resources and the needs of others with disabilities.
The Office of Disability Rights has created a Faces of Olmstead project to highlight District residents with disabilities who live successfully in the community through community-based services.
Olmstead Planning in the District of Columbia
Printable Version of Plans, Metrics, and Other Related Materials:
2025-2027 Agency Quarterly Reports
Final 2025-2027 District Olmstead Plan.
Comments to the 2025-2027 Olmstead Plan Second Draft:
2025-2027 District Olmstead Plan Second Draft
Olmstead Community Town Hall, October 1, 2024
Olmstead Conference, September 17, 2024
Comments to the 2025-2027 Olmstead Plan First Draft:
- Georgetown University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities
Olmstead Community Town Hall 2025-2027 Plan First Draft Virtual Meeting, July 17, 2024
2025-2027 District Olmstead Plan First Draft
Olmstead Community Town Hall, June 18, 2024
Olmstead Community Town Hall, February 26, 2024
2021-2024 Agency Quarterly Reports
2021-2024 District Olmstead Plan
Comments to the 2021-2024 Olmstead Plan
Olmstead Community Town Hall, December 7, 2022
Olmstead Community Town Hall, May 26, 2021
January 2021 Olmstead Plan Update.
2020 Olmstead Conference, September 21-23, 2020
2020 Olmstead Community Townhall Materials, July 21, 2020
2020 Olmstead Working Group Minutes
2020 Olmstead Community Townhall Materials, April 28, 2020
2020 Agency Reports and Summaries
2018 Agency Quarterly Reports and Plan Amendments
2016 Olmstead Plan and Appendices
2016 Olmstead Working Group Meeting Minutes
2015 Calendar Year Annual Summary
