Social Justice Challenge
Welcome to our monthly social justice page. We hope these might inspire you to raise your awareness and potentially to engage in some advocacy work! Scroll down to see the ones you may have missed!
Feb. 2026
Restraint, Isolation, and the Fight for Dignity in Disability Policy
Across the country, lawmakers and advocates are confronting a long-standing disability justice concern: the continued use of restraint and isolation on students with disabilities, particularly students with intellectual and developmental disabilities (ID/DD). These practices are still disproportionately used on disabled students and students of color, despite extensive evidence that they cause harm, trauma, and long-term negative outcomes.
Nationally, legislation such as the proposed Keeping All Students Safe Act continues to shape conversations about limiting or banning dangerous restraint and seclusion practices in schools, while federal efforts to protect oversight of special education law (IDEA) highlight how fragile disability protections can be.
In Washington State, advocacy organizations, including Open Doors for Multicultural Families, are advancing legislative priorities that call for ending restraint and isolation in schools, strengthening accountability, and investing in culturally responsive, trauma-informed supports that center on student dignity and belonging.
In Oregon, current legislative efforts include bills to strengthen special education funding, expand access to school-based behavioral health supports, and study post-secondary opportunities for people with disabilities; recognizing that inclusive, humane systems must support individuals with IDD across the lifespan.
Across all levels, one message is clear:
Safety cannot be achieved through control. True safety is built through relationship, skill-building, and belonging.
Call to Action: Turning Concern Into Change
Lasting change happens when care, curiosity, and advocacy move together. This month, we invite you to take one meaningful step toward more humane, relationship-centered systems for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities:
Learn: Ask how restraint and isolation are addressed in your local schools or programs, and what proactive, trauma-informed alternatives are in place.
Advocate: Support organizations and coalitions working to replace harmful practices with approaches rooted in dignity, skill-building, and belonging.
Shift the Conversation: In your work and relationships, move from “How do we stop this behavior?” to “What support or skill is needed right now?”
Center Humanity: Encourage teams and systems to invest in relationships, regulation, and repair (not control) as the foundation of safety.
Every question asked, relationship strengthened, and system challenged helps move us closer to supports that truly honor human dignity.
Jan. 2026
Intellectual Disabilities and the Death Penalty
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Hamm v. Smith, a high-stakes legal fight over whether a man convicted of murder in Alabama can be executed despite longstanding claims that he is intellectually disabled. The case tests how courts define and assess intellectual disability in death penalty cases and could reshape legal protections that have kept people with IDD from execution since Atkins v. Virginia established that executing individuals with intellectual disabilities violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Disability advocates warn that narrowing the standards for proving intellectual disability could roll back critical civil rights protections for people with IDD nationwide.
Cases like Hamm v. Smith remind us that disability rights are human rights, and they require continued vigilance. We invite our community to stay informed, amplify disability-led advocacy, and speak out against policies and practices that put people with intellectual disabilities at risk. Learn more about how intellectual disability is defined and protected under the law, follow the voices of self-advocates and disability rights organizations, and support efforts that ensure dignity, fairness, and justice for all people with IDD.
Stay informed and support disability-rights advocacy:
• Disability petitions & action alerts: https://www.change.org/topic/disability-rights-5
• Follow advocacy from The Arc of the United States: https://thearc.org/
• Learn more about the Supreme Court case: https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/case-files/hamm-v-smith-4/