Disabled Teens’ Benefits Upheld

SACRAMENTO —  California must stop denying welfare benefits to disabled teenagers who will not complete high school by the age of 19, a judge has decided.

Superior Court Judge Lloyd G. Connelly ruled Tuesday that the Americans with Disabilities Act requires the state to modify a law requiring termination of benefits to children at 18 unless they will finish high school by their next birthday.

Connelly said the state failed to show that providing welfare benefits to the children would impose an undue financial burden.

He said welfare for the students -- estimated at $9 million to $16 million annually -- can be paid out of a state welfare reserve of $77 million this fiscal year and $158 million next year.

About 3,000 to 6,000 disabled teens will be able to continue receiving welfare benefits under the ruling, said Nu Usaha, attorney for the Western Center on Law and Poverty.

The Los Angeles-based center and two law firms filed the suit in 2000 on behalf of a young woman who had an emotional disability from an assault in high school and the parent of a boy who suffered a severe head injury in a car accident at age 4.

“The state has money to pay for this,” Usaha said. “It does not have to reduce benefits to other welfare recipients or have to increase taxes.”

Paul Reynaga, deputy attorney general, said the state has not yet decided whether to appeal.