Volume 9, Number 3, June 2023 Governor’s Council on Disability Newsletter GCD: Governor’s Council on Disability Governor's Council on Disability logo Inside this Issue Page 1: - GCD Poster Contest for NDEAM Page 2: - 2023 Legislative Session results Page 3: - Opportunities to support and participate in MO-YLF 2023 Page 4: - New Pregnant Workers Fairness Act - Upcoming Events GCD Poster Contest for NDEAM by Claudia Browner Image: Governor’s Council on Disability Poster Contest graphic on medium blue and brown background. A circular image on the left shows a colorful abstract portrait of a person Wording: Governor’s Council on Disability Poster Contest Open now – entries due September 15 2023 Submit your artwork for a chance to be featured on the Governor’s Council on Disability’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) poster The 2023 NDEAM theme is Advancing Access and Equity disability.mo.gov/gcd/PosterContest The Governor’s Council on Disability (GCD) is now accepting entries for the poster contest for National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) NDEAM is celebrated nationwide each October to recognize and honor the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities past and present and showcase supportive, inclusive policies and practices that benefit employees and employers alike. The theme for the 2023 NDEAM is Advancing Access and Equity to recognize the importance of ensuring people with disabilities have equal opportunity to prepare for and succeed in employment. All Missouri residents are invited to showcase their artistic talents by submitting original artwork. In addition to the 2023 theme of Advancing Access and Equity, the artwork can relate to Inclusion, Employment and Community. The winning artwork will be featured on the GCD’s 2023 poster celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), which is distributed statewide. In addition, the poster featuring the winning artwork will be published on the Disability Portal’s NDEAM virtual exhibit website, GCD website, newsletter, social media platforms, and annual report. All artwork entries will be featured on the GCD’s poster contest website. Find out how you can participate at disability.mo.gov/gcd/PosterContest Posters must be submitted by September 15. Questions? Call 573.751.2600 Page 2 GCD: Governor’s Council on Disability 2023 Legislative Session Results by Laura Mueth Image: Missouri State Capitol This year’s legislative session is now in the books. It was an eventful eighteen weeks. The sixteen non appropriation bills listed below were Truly Agreed To and Finally Passed (TAFP) by the House of Representatives and Senate. They were all either tracked in the Legislative Update throughout the legislative session or contain language or topics from at least one bill tracked in the Legislative Update this year. All but one (SB 51) are waiting on Governor Parson to determine whether they will become law. He has until mid-July to sign, veto or take no action on these. SB 51 was already signed by Governor Parson and will become effective August 28, 2023. Seven of the bills contain more than one aspect affecting individuals with disabilities. Those are HB 402, HB 417, SB 45, SB 70, SB 103, SB 106, and SB 157. Some topics are also found in more than one of the bills because legislators always attempt to provide multiple avenues for various concepts/bills to become law. The general topic areas covered by the bills are employment, health care, mental health, awareness, public assistance, education services, taxes, use of electronic communication devices while driving, and guardianship/conservatorship and public administrator. Clicking the links to the bills will take you to the bill page where you can read the summary or the text of the bill to determine what the TAFP version contains. Many individuals and organizations have been active throughout this year and previous years educating legislators on the issues contained in these bills. If an issue important to you did not pass this year or you have an issue/concern that needs to be addressed through legislation, legislators will begin working on ideas for 2024 later this summer. HB 115 Modifies provisions relating to the scope of practice for physical therapists (Shields) HB 202 Modifies provisions relating to environmental control (Francis) HB 402 Modifies the definition of “hospital” to include rural emergency hospitals (Henderson) HB 417 Grants to employers to encourage employees to obtain upskill credentials (Henderson) HB 447 Modifies provisions regarding adult high schools (Davidson) SB 24 Creates the Missouri First Responder Mental Health Initiative Act (Hough) SB 45 Modifies provisions relating to health care—MO HealthNet (Gannon) SB 51 Modifies provisions relating to physical therapists (Eslinger) SB 70 Modifies provisions relating to professional licensing—Adopts the Counseling Interstate Compact (Fitzwater) SB 103 Modifies provisions relating to judicial proceedings (Crawford) SB 106 Modifies provisions relating to public health—Performing of certain patient examinations (Arthur) SB 139 Establishes the “Stars and Stripes Historic Region of Missouri” (Bean) SB 157 Modifies provisions relating to collaborative practice arrangements with nurses (Black) SB 186 Modifies provisions relating to public safety (Brown) SB 190 Modifies provisions relating to tax relief for seniors (Luetkemeyer) SB 398 Enacts provisions relating to motor vehicles (Schroer) Page 3 GCD: Governor’s Council on Disability Opportunities to Support and Participate in MO-YLF 2023 by Rachel Rackers Missouri Youth Leadership Forum logo Thirty-six delegates and numerous staff are getting geared up for the 19th annual Missouri Youth Leadership Forum (MO-YLF) for high school students with disabilities to be held at the University of Missouri in Columbia, July 18-22. Throughout the week, the delegates will be exposed to a variety of helpful information to help them in their transition from high school. One unique event during the week is the mentor luncheon, where successful individuals with disabilities from a variety of different career paths are invited to talk to the delegates and share their experiences. It is an opportunity for delegates to learn first-hand that they can lead productive and full lives. If you are a person with a disability and would like to participate in our mentor event, we would love to have you join us! You may not know this, but the Missouri Youth Leadership Forum is completely funded from sponsorships and in-kind donations. The support from individuals and organizations, is what allows us to offer this life changing program at no cost to the youth or their families. There are several ways that you can support MO-YLF and the youth with disabilities from all over Missouri that attend our 5-day program. One way is to be sponsor through a monetary donation. We have many different levels of sponsorships, starting at just $50! Another way to donate and contribute to MO-YLF, is through in-kind donations. Each of our delegates and staff get a welcome backpack with different types of goodies and promotional items. We will have roughly 80 backpacks to fill this year and still need items for them, but need your help to make this possible. Other items that we are needing, include: giveaway/door prizes (gift cards or larger items). Find out more about the sponsorship opportunities at https://disability.mo.gov/gcd/files/2023-MO-YLF- Sponsorship-Opportunities.pdf A third way to donate and contribute to MO-YLF, is to donate an item off our wish list. We have created a list of these items to give more opportunities for individuals and organizations to help support our program and offset some of our expenses. The MO-YLF Wish List can be found at https://disability.mo.gov/gcd/files/2023-mo-ylf-wish-list.pdf Text box titled "How can you help?" - Participate as a mentor - Participate in the resource event - Donate items - Provide a sponsorship Every single donation helps us provide this excellent experience for our delegates, whether it be monetary, in-kind, or an item off our wish list. Lastly, if you are an organization that provides a service or supports high school students with disabilities, we want to invite you to join us for our MO-YLF Resource event on July 22nd from 10:00 am to noon at the University of Missouri Campus in Columbia. This is an opportunity to share helpful information and resources with our delegates and their parents/guardians. Our goal is to send them home with a large variety of information that will be helpful and also to the parent/guardian in supporting their youth. If you would like to support the Missouri Youth Leadership Forum or have questions about donating or participating, please contact Rachel Rackers at rachel.rackers@oa.mo.gov . Page 4 GCD: Governor’s Council on Disability New Pregnant Workers Fairness Act by Claudia Browner Have you heard of the new Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) that was signed into law in December 2022? This new law will go into effect on June 27, 2023. It provides certain protections to employees and applicants of covered employers* who have known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions. The law requires covered employers to provide reasonable accommodations to workers who are experiencing these limitations. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC) provides detailed information about this new law on its website at https://www.eeoc.gov/wysk/what-you-should-know-about-pregnant-workers-fairness-act In addition to the PWFA, there are other federal laws that may apply to pregnant workers, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA), and the PUMP Act. Please note that the EEOC states that, “while pregnancy itself is not a disability under the ADA, some pregnant workers may have one or more impairments related to their pregnancy that qualify as a “disability” under the ADA. An employer may have to provide that worker with a reasonable accommodation for the pregnancy-related disability.” *Covered employers include private and public sector employers with at least 15 employees, Congress, Federal agencies, employment agencies, and labor organizations Upcoming Events June 5-7, 2023 Missouri Rehabilitation Association (MRA) Conference, Osage Beach https://www.mo-rehab.org/conference June 26-28, 2023 Transition Training Institute, Columbia https://dese.mo.gov/media/pdf/2023-missouri-transition-training-institute-gear-future July 18-22, 2023 Missouri Youth Leadership Forum, Columbia https://disability.mo.gov/gcd/ylf.htm July 20-22, 2023 APSE-MO Employment Summit, Columbia http://www.apsemo.org/events.html August 27-29, 2023 Real Voices—Real Choices Conference, Osage Beach https://www.missourimhf.org/real-voices-real-choices-conference/ September 27-29, 2023 MACDDS Annual Conference, Columbia https://macdds.org/annual-conference/ If you know of other events you would like us to share with the disability community, please contact our office. Missouri Governor’s Council on Disability Council Members Ronald Hack, Council Chair, St. Louis Joan Bergstrom, Ed. D, Lee’s Summit Charles Comstock, Kirksville Wayne Crawford, Marshall Betty Davidson, Ph.D., St. Louis Chip Hailey, Joplin Rosemary Hendon, West Plains Katie Jones, St. Charles Kim Lackey, St. Louis Elijah Mayfield, Jefferson City Susan Orton, Creve Coeur Traci Ritter, Cape Girardeau Andrew Sartorius, Jefferson City Lesia Shelton, Buffalo James Trout, St. Louis Robert Wallace, St. Louis Missouri Governor’s Council on Disability Staff Members Claudia Browner, Executive Director Laura Mueth, Senior Program Specialist Rachel Rackers, Senior Program Specialist Jennifer Pettit, Lead Administrative Support Assistant