On Sunday, April 12, Dateline NBC presented an hour-long special on the experiences of two young adults with autism as they turned 21 and lost their eligibility for school-based services and supports. The program vividly illustrates the challenges adolescents with autism and other developmental disabilities often face during their transition to adulthood.

The 2020 Federal Youth Transition Plan: A Federal Interagency Strategy outlines how the partner agencies will enhance interagency coordination through the identification of a shared vision, compatible outcome goals, and policy priorities, ultimately leading to improved outcomes for youth with disabilities by 2020. The Plan was developed by The Federal Partners in Transition (FPT) with representatives from four federal agencies, the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Department of Labor, and the Social Security Administration.

Each March, we celebrate National Nutrition Month® to highlight the importance of proper nutrition in promoting wellness. Along with promoting physical health and well-being, ACL’s nutrition program creates a positive ripple effect on the personal and social lives of older people.

The Administration for Community Living joins President Obama in recognizing American Heart Month.

For many years, state courts have routinely assigned guardians to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities as they became adults. Older adults with dementia-related disorders also frequently have been assigned guardians.

The New Year Brings New HCBS Settings Rules … but NOT immediate changes in services! As states and stakeholders across the country assess their Medicaid-funded home and community-based settings for compliance with the 2014 regulations, many people with disabilities and their families have asked whether their current services will change immediately, due to the regulation. In other words, they want to know: If a state determines that a current HCB setting is not compliant with the new regulation, does it have to stop providing services in that setting immediately?

December 1 is the 26th annual World AIDS Day. While raising awareness of the prevalence of AIDS and HIV, we also need to raise awareness about who is at risk. Unsafe sex is the most common way people contract HIV worldwide. Unfortunately, many people mistakenly assume that older Americans and individuals with a disability are not sexually active and therefore not at risk for HIV infection.

By Vicki Gottlich, Director of the Center for Policy and Evaluation, Administration for Community Living

Protecting the Voting Rights of People with Disabilities In this blog, we feature a conversation about voting rights for people with disabilities between Commissioner Aaron Bishop, of the Administration on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AIDD), and Melvenia Wright, a program specialist with the Administration for Community Living (ACL) who manages grants related to the Help American Vote Act (HAVA).

By Bonnie Brandl, Director of the National Clearinghouse for Abuse in Later Life This week, the National Adult Protective Services Association (NAPSA) hosted their annual conference, which brought together hundreds of APS workers and other professionals from a variety of disciplines to address the abuse of older adults and persons with disabilities. This year’s theme, Stronger Together: Celebrating 25 Years Protecting America’s Vulnerable Adults, provides an important opportunity to shed light on why we need a comprehensive community response to elder abuse.