What’s your favorite right?  Is it freedom of speech? Voting? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? What do these and all our other bedrock rights have in common? Choice. Choice gives us the power to decide what to say and what to keep secret, who governs us, and how, where, and wit h whom we live, work, and play. By choosing – even when others may disagree with our decisions – we assert our independence and honor those who marched, fought, voted, and taught to ensure that we, and the people we love, have choices to make. What do you do when you have to make a choice but don’t know what to do? Or when you don’t know enough about the issue? Or when you just want to “talk it out?” You get help, don’t you? You may ask a friend or family member for advice or a professional for information. They help you think about the issues, identify your options, and choose the one that best for you. When you do that, you’re using Supported Decision-Making: people you choose give you support, so you can make decisions. We all do that, every day, to make decisions as simple as what to eat or where to go and as complicated as whether to have surgery or how to budget and spend our money. A new bill, HB 6165, An act concerning the use of supported decision-making agreements in lieu of conservatorships or guardianships, will, if it becomes law, ensure that people with disabilities have the same right to use Supported Decision-Making as everyone else. HB 6165 will give parents a choice and a way to protect and support their children with disabilities, throughout their adult lives, other than asking a court to put their children in guardianship or conservatorship. When courts put people with disabilities in guardianship or conservatorship, they take away some or all of the person’s rights and give someone else – usually a parent or family member – the power to make decisions in their place. Guardianship and conservatorship can be helpful or even lifesaving when they are needed; so parents must always have those options. But, what if parents want their children to keep their rights but want to stay involved in their lives as a safety net, to ensure that they have the help they need? What if they want to be there for their children but don’t want to go through the time and expense of seeking guardianship or conservatorship or don’t want the court involved in their lives? Where is the “middle ground” between guardianship/conservatorship and nothing? Most parents think they have to put their children in guardianship or conservatorship if they want to stay involved in their children’s lives. HB 6165 will give them another option, by explicitly saying that people with disabilities have the right to use Supported Decision-Making, if they can and choose to do so, as an alternative to being put into guardianship or conservatorship. Giving parents more choices and ways to help their children is a good thing. Giving people with disabilities more ways to make choices is a good thing. Unfortunately, HB 6165 has been referred to the Judiciary Committee, but the committee has not scheduled it for a hearing.  We believe that, at the very least, the committee should listen to the people with disabilities, parents, family members, advocates and professionals who want the right to choose to use Supported Decision Making in Connecticut. In the last decade, more than half the states, including our neighbors in New York, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island, have passed laws ensuring that people have the right to choose Supported Decision-Making. It’s time for Connecticut to join them. Stephen Byers is an Attorney with Disability Rights Connecticut and Kathy Flaherty is Executive Director of the Connecticut Legal Rights Project, on behalf of the Connecticut Supported Decision Making Coalition, a collaboration between state agencies and nonprofit organizations, education agencies, youth and adults with disabilities, family members and advocates. ...read more read less