People with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are overrepresented in the criminal legal system. Further, many people with IDD move between large state-run institutions and the criminal legal system. In 2019, for example, 29% of people moving into large state-run institutions came from jails, prisons, and other correctional…

This brief uses publicly available data from the National Core Indicators® (NCI)-IDD Staff Stability Survey to compare wages of direct support professionals (DSPs) to what people earn in other similar professions. It also puts them in context by comparing DSP wages to living wages--the cost of living based on typical expenses that meet minimum…

This brief contains findings from a recent study exploring direct support professionals (DSPs) providing support to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of finding and keeping quality DSPs in a field that has experienced high turnover for decades. This problem is exacerbated…

The large, often miserable, state-run institutions that used to house people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) are closing as people with IDD increasingly live in community. Most states are actively working to close the remaining large state-run and non-state IDD institutions. If current trends continue, the remaining state-run…

It is well known that there is a critical shortage of direct support professionals (DSPs) who support people with intellectual and developmental disabilities to live in the community. While the work is high-skilled and varied in nature, wages remain low. COVID-19 had unprecedented adverse effects on DSPs, the people they support, organizations,…