MANCHESTER, Conn. — To Catherine Grant, there is little question that her 21-year-old granddaughter, Cathrine Mayo, has an intellectual disability.
Mayo struggles to read and write and can do only basic math. She doesn’t drive and often needs reminding to brush her teeth or shower. As Grant sees it, she’s exactly the type of person who state benefits for adults with intellectual disabilities are intended to help.
Yet when Grant applied several years ago for benefits for her granddaughter, Connecticut’s Department of Developmental Services responded that Mayo could not receive these benefits due to tests showing her IQ was just above 70, the threshold below which someone is eligible.
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“There is no question that Cathrine has presented evidence demonstrating that she has numerous intellectual challenges,” a hearing officer wrote in late 2023. “But based on the evidence as presented and the law as it exists at this time (Cathrine) does not qualify for DDS services.”
Grant, who raised Mayo and continues to live with her in Voluntown, wasn’t content to accept that answer. So she hired an attorney and filed a lawsuit against DDS on behalf of Mayo, hoping to secure benefits such as housing support and a case worker who can make sure Mayo’s basic needs are met.
“My main concern is to worry how she is going to take care of herself without some support,” Grant, 73, said. “Because I’m not going to be here forever to help her do things.”
Grant and Mayo’s suit, filed in January 2024, asks DDS to reverse its decision, declare Mayo eligible for benefits and prevent the state from using “a rigid cutoff score of 70 to deny eligibility for services.”
A spokesperson from the Department of Developmental Services declined to comment. In records submitted to the court as part of the suit, a DDS hearing officer argued that “flexibility does not exist” in the law and that the agency is thus “left to interpreting the statute as the legislature and courts to date have instructed.”
The case, which is in the discovery phase and could be headed for trial next year, has recently attracted multiple prominent law firms who see it as an opportunity to loosen a law they say prevents many residents with intellectual disabilities from accessing benefits.
Under current policy, applicants must show an IQ below 70, as well as “deficits in adaptive behavior” that arose before age 18. Even one IQ test above that threshold can disqualify someone from benefits.
According to court records, Mayo had at least one IQ test below 70 during her childhood but also multiple just above that threshold, thereby leaving her ineligible.
Sarah Eagan, executive director of the Hartford-based Center for Children’s Advocacy, which has joined the lawsuit, said state agencies in Connecticut “ration the crap out of” these benefits, seemingly due to budget constraints.
“We’re not committed to delivering the help,” Eagan said. “Why does DDS tell people, ‘Don’t send me this child if they get an IQ over 70’? Because it’s a fiscal consideration.”
Chris Mattei, a prominent attorney with the Bridgeport law firm Koskoff Koskoff & Bieder, has also joined the suit, which he describes as “a civil rights case on behalf of a family that really stands in for thousands of families across the state.”
Mattei said he hopes not only that Grant and Mayo will prevail in court but also that the state legislature will change the law around benefits people with intellectual disabilities.
“The reality here is if the state of Connecticut would just do the right thing and update its policies so that IQ test was not the only measure by which they decided whether a young adult was capable of living independently, then this lawsuit wouldn’t be necessary,” Mattei said.
Grant said she’s hopeful a judge will rule in her favor but doesn’t want to take anything for granted. She is currently applying for Supplemental Security Income for Mayo to ensure she’ll have at least some income in either case.
Though she filed the suit primarily to help her own granddaughter, Grant said she’d be “very happy to hear” if her efforts end up helping other people as well.
“People like my granddaughter, with just the intellectual disability and they’re around the cutoff, they can do very well in life if they have some support,” she said.
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