ALBANY – Proposed state legislation would block government agencies from sending disabled people out-of-state for “adverse conditioning” banned in New York nearly 20 years ago.
“Andre’s Law” is named in honor of Andre McCollins, who was shocked with electricity 31 times over seven hours as a teenager in 2002 for refusing to take off his jacket at the Judge Rotenberg Center outside Boston, the only known facility still offering such treatments.
“It isn’t fair that the Judge Rotenberg Center gets a pass to torture our children with special needs. How is this going on for so many years?” Cheryl McCollin, mother of Andre, said at the state Capitol on Monday.
The bill would ban taxpayer spending on “adverse conditioning” at a Massachusetts facility despite a 2004 New York ban on using electric shocks as a behavioral treatment inside the Empire State.
Records show city agencies like the New York City Administration for Children’s Services and the Department of Education have paid at least $7.6 million this year to the Judge Rotenberg Center for child welfare services.
State agencies like the State Education Department and the Office for People With Developmental Disabilities, as well as local counties, confirmed they do the placement for NYC’s DOE with the controversial center.
About 100 children and young adults from the Empire State are currently at the center, according to bill advocates, which means New York taxpayer dollars are supporting the center’s use of electric shock whether or not those individuals are specifically getting the so-called treatment.
“To be clear, when we’re sending students over there, we are funding that practice,” state Sen. Jabari Brisport (D-Brooklyn), who is sponsoring the bill in his chamber, told reporters at the Capitol on Monday.
“Adverse conditioning” aims to control behavior by having someone wear a fanny-pack device with wires that attach to an electrode delivering the shock whenever an undesired behavior occurs.
Proponents say helps people deal with conditions like autism.
But critics note the FDA has already tried to ban the treatments though it ultimately decided states have ultimate authority on the matter.
The ongoing use of the treatment by New York agencies for children and young adults in Massachusetts means the time has come for state lawmakers to close what they call a loophole in the existing law.
An ACS spokesperson said the child welfare agency oversees payments for placements to the center by the DOE, which told The Post that students are sent there at the “discretion” of their parents. The DOE spokesperson added electroshocks are not supposed to be part of the treatment for children sent by the city.
“The problem is our tax dollars are going to places like the Rotenberg Center to ensure that people get shocked, people get injured, people get harmed,” Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan), who is sponsoring the bill, said Monday.
“All we’re saying is New York state needs to stop. We need to change course. We need to acknowledge that this type of shocking this type of conditioning is pain.”
Brisport expressed confidence the bill could pass the state Legislature in the four weeks that remain before the June 8 end of the 2023 legislative session.
But lobbying records show the Judge Rotenberg Center is not going down with a fight after inking a $68,000 contract with a lobbyist.
“The parents and guardians of clients of the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center will continue to work to ensure that that the life-saving electrical stimulation device treatment remains available to those for whom all other treatment options have been tried and failed. Allowing the use of ESDs as part of these clients’ treatment plans is a matter of life or death,” the center said in a statement.
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Zach Williams
