Action Alert: Tell DODD NO to the Travel Restriction Rule

Ohio’s Department of Developmental Disabilities (DODD) has released its proposed travel restriction rule (OAC 5123-9-08) for public comment. All comments are due by May 16, 2025.

This rule would limit the freedom of people with developmental disabilities to leave the state for more than 60 total days per year and require a team meeting and ISP update for any travel of seven or more consecutive days. It hands that authority to possibly grant “exceptions” to untrained county board workers with no legal background, no guardrails, and a well-documented record of bias against disability families.

We are asking everyone to send in a formal comment opposing the rule.

Below is a suggested comment you can copy, paste, and send. Feel free to personalize it if you'd like. Every submission counts!

DUE DATE: May 16, 2026 (Just send it right now so you don’t forget!)

How to comment:

1. Open up a blank email. Put becky.phillips@dodd.ohio.gov in the “To” line.

2. Put “Comment Opposing Travel Restriction Rule” in the Subject line.

3. Copy the suggested comment below or write your own if you prefer.

4. DO NOT include private health information about yourself or your loved one, as this is a public record.

5. Sign your name and hit “Send.”

   
   

--SUGGESTED COMMENT (Use this one or write your own if you'd prefer)--

To Whom It May Concern:

I am writing to express my strong opposition to the proposed rule 5123-9-08, which imposes a 60-day annual limit on out-of-state travel for individuals with developmental disabilities enrolled in Ohio’s Medicaid HCBS waivers. This rule is discriminatory, unconstitutional, and dangerous in its delegation of basic constitutional rights to unqualified gatekeepers, with complete discretionary authority to grant or deny “exceptions.”

1. This Rule Violates the U.S. Constitution and Ohio Law

People with developmental disabilities are entitled to the same constitutional and statutory protections as any other person. That includes:

• The right to interstate travel (Privileges and Immunities Clause, Article IV, 14th Amendment, see also United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745 (1966))

• The right to due process (5th and 14th Amendments)

• The right to equal protection under the law (14th Amendment)

No other Ohioan has to seek permission to leave the state or return within a certain timeframe. It is unconstitutional to impose these limits on disabled individuals simply because they need Medicaid HCBS-funded care.

This rule also violates the Ohio Disability Bill of Rights (ORC 5123.62), which guarantees:

• (A) The right to be treated at all times with courtesy and respect and with full recognition of their dignity and individuality;

• (G) The right to receive appropriate care and treatment in the least intrusive manner;

• (H) The right to privacy, including both periods of privacy and places of privacy;

• (I) The right to communicate freely with persons of their choice in any reasonable manner they choose;

• (L) The right of access to opportunities that enable individuals to develop their full human potential;

• (N) The right to be treated equally as citizens under the law; and

• (P) The right to participate in appropriate programs of education, training, social development, and habilitation and in programs of reasonable recreation.

If a nondisabled person can spend December to February in Florida while remaining an Ohio resident, so can a person with a disability, regardless of whether they receive Medicaid-funded services. This rule creates a second-tier citizenship for Ohioans with developmental disabilities and tramples upon their constitutional rights.

2. This Rule Hands Constitutional Authority to Untrained, Biased Personnel

The draft rule (OAC 5123-9-08) gives county board Service and Support Administrators (SSAs) authority to approve or deny travel beyond 60 days, with no meaningful standards, training, or oversight.

SSAs are entry-level workers, not judges. They should not be determining whether someone can travel to attend a funeral, receive medical care, or visit extended family. The rule includes no criteria to guide these decisions, leaving rulings entirely at the whim of the individual SSA.

That’s especially dangerous given what we now know about SSA bias. In a widely shared video, over 200 county board workers were caught referring to the families they serve as “greedy,” “lazy,” and “mental.” DODD leadership took no disciplinary action and never denounced the comments. Even Adam Herman, CEO of the Ohio Association of County Boards (OACB), later admitted:

“The personal biases they [county board employees] bring to interactions with families can and does negatively impact these relationships.”

Why would DODD empower these admittedly biased bureaucrats to override the constitutional rights of people with developmental disabilities?

Worse still, DODD consulted Lisa Comes, the OACB employee who appears in that video egging others on, as a “stakeholder” in the drafting of this rule. In the video, Comes applauds the use of offensive slurs against disability families, saying:

 “We have a lot of people who put some triggering words for some of the family members on here…which is awesome, ‘cause we’re like, ‘They won’t say the mean things.’ Yes, yes, we will.”

This is who helped shape this unconstitutional policy, and this should be alarming to all Ohioans.

3. The Rule’s Fiscal Analysis Misleads the Public and Violates Transparency Obligations

In the Rule Summary and Fiscal Analysis for OAC 5123-9-08, DODD incorrectly claims that the rule does not impose additional costs on local government (See RSFA, Number 14). That is demonstrably false. This rule will significantly increase the workload of county board SSAs, who will now be responsible for:

• Coordinating team meetings for every trip of 7 or more days,

• Updating ISPs and travel safety protocols, sometimes mid-trip,

• Reviewing and deciding exception requests for travel beyond 60 days,

• Drafting due process notices for denials,

• Participating in travel denial hearings and appeals.

This will require many hours of additional SSA labor per case and should have been disclosed as an increased local government cost. This is not a clarification of existing rules. It is a significant administrative expansion that requires hours of new labor per case, and DODD failed to report that burden honestly.

4. The Rule Will Cause Real Harm

Disabled people who rely on waiver services cannot simply ‘pause’ their need for care. This rule puts their basic freedom at the mercy of untrained, admittedly biased bureaucrats and creates delays that could prevent urgent, last-minute travel for medical treatment or family emergencies. DODD is trying to regulate freedom of movement. But that freedom is a right, not a privilege, and no public agency has the authority to take it away from people with developmental disabilities.

I urge DODD to withdraw this rule and abandon any policy that limits travel for Medicaid waiver recipients. Travel limitations are not medically necessary, fiscally justified, or constitutionally sound. They belong in the bygone era of institutional control, not in the era of full community inclusion.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]