Goals

Home Goals

Goals and Priorities

October 1, 2026 – September 30, 2027

Goal 1: Prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation, and disability rights violations in settings where people with disabilities live and receive services.

Priorities:

  1. Monitor facilities and community settings that serve people with disabilities to ensure they are free from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and rights violations.
  2. Monitor Community Residential Care Facilities to ensure that people with mental health conditions are free from abuse, neglect, exploitation, and disability rights violations.
  3. Ensure that people receiving Social Security and Supplemental Security Income are protected from abuse, neglect, and financial exploitation by representative payees through the Social Security Administration’s review process, referrals, education, and outreach.
  4. Investigate allegations of serious abuse, neglect, or exploitation or any unexpected, unexplained death of a person with a disability in a facility or community setting, through referrals to licensing or oversight agencies, individual advocacy, and primary or secondary investigations in select matters.
  5. Monitor the Richland County Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center.
  6. Monitor the settlement agreement with the Charleston County Juvenile Detention Center.
  7. Continue litigation against the Department of Juvenile Justice to improve conditions, treatment and services for youth with disabilities.
  8. Monitor the settlement agreement with the South Carolina Department of Corrections.
  9. Investigate abuse and neglect claims of students with disabilities in the Horry County School District.

 

Goal 2: Ensure that people with disabilities can live and work in the community by accessing fair person-centered services, support, and resources to enforce their legal rights.

Priorities:

Home and Community-Based Services

  1. Provide self-advocacy assistance, limited assistance, and select direct representation to people with disabilities concerning denial, reduction, or termination of Medicaid services.
  2. Provide self-advocacy assistance, limited assistance, and select direct representation to ensure that people with disabilities can receive services in their homes and communities.
  3. Monitoring compliance with the Behavioral Health Restructuring law that incorporates a community living integration plan in South Carolina.

Employment

  1. Ensure that applicants and consumers of vocational rehabilitation (VR) services are informed of services and benefits available and their right to these services.
  2. Address barriers to work for PABSS eligible Social Security (SSI and SSDI) beneficiaries.
  3. Investigate employment services for people on Home and Community-Based Service Waivers
  4. Provide self-advocacy assistance, limited assistance, and select direct representation to people with disabilities concerning employment discrimination.

Education

  1. Provide technical assistance, self-advocacy assistance, and direct representation in select matters to students and their families regarding educational rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

Voting

  1. Assist voters with disabilities in using their right to vote through a disability voter hotline, education, outreach, and collaboration with other voter advocacy organizations.
  2. Educate state and local policymakers about the barriers to voting that people with disabilities experience and advocate for the removal of those barriers.

Assistive Technology

  1. Provide self-advocacy assistance, limited assistance, and select direct representation to access assistive technology.

Community Access

  1. Provide self-advocacy assistance, limited assistance, and select direct representation to people with disabilities regarding rights under Titles II and III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Fair Housing Act, and similar state laws protecting people with disabilities.

Goal 3: People with Disabilities Become Better Self-Advocates through Education and Training

Priorities:

  1. Increase public awareness of DRSC services and resources through training and outreach activities.
  2. Create more plain language and accessible resource materials in a variety of formats.

 

How We Decide If We Can Help

Disability Rights South Carolina (DRSC) is federally designated to protect and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities. However, federal law gives us discretion in deciding which cases are accepted. Because our resources are limited, we evaluate each request for assistance based on our current goals and priorities and our review process.

Below are guidelines that help DRSC staff in determining whether DRSC will offer assistance as well as the type of assistance DRSC will offer.

  • Eligibility for services under DRSC’s grants.
  • Legal merit and likelihood of success.
  • Availability of private attorneys or other organizations who might be able to help.
  • DRSC staffing and resource capacity.
  • Ability for self-advocacy of the person with a disability or their family/support system.
  • Whether the case could help us teach people with disabilities and the public about their rights and what to do if those rights are violated.
  • Willingness to have the case used to educate the public or make bigger changes.
  • Potential for the case to help change laws, rules, or practices that affect people with disabilities.
  • Whether the case falls within our goals and priorities for the year. If your concern matches these, we use the below list of priorities to evaluate further.
    • Allegations of serious abuse, neglect, exploitation, or any unexpected, unexplained death of a person in a facility or community setting that serves people with disabilities.
    • People with disabilities residing in facilities ready and wanting to move to the community.
    • People with disabilities who are facing institutionalization or re-institutionalization due to a lack of community-based programs and services.
    • People with disabilities who are seeking or who have been denied vocational rehabilitation services.
    • PABSS eligible recipients of SSI or SSDI who are facing barriers to work.
    • SSA beneficiaries reporting Representative Payee exploitation.
    • All other legal rights cases in accordance with these guidelines

Grievance Policy and Procedures

DRSC is required by federal law to have a grievance procedure so clients, prospective clients, and their family members may express concerns about the services they received or if they were denied assistance from us.  If you are unhappy in any way with the services you received from DRSC, please complete our grievance (complaint) form.

Grievance Policy and Procedures