National Council on Disability Notice of Funding Availability on Guardianship and Alternatives.

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Adult guardianship arises when a court determines that an individual lacks capacity to meet the essential requirements for health and safety and/or manage property and therefore appoints another adult as a guardian to act on his or her behalf in a variety of decision making situations. In operation, this means that the individual loses the authority to make decisions with respect to important areas of life, including where to live, whether to work and where, where one can travel, with whom one can socialize, how to manage money and property, and virtually every aspect of daily life. There is evidence that guardianship is becoming more prevalent both as the population ages and in response to deinstitutionalization. Guardianship is a topic that has received considerable attention in the legal community in the past several decades and which has gained more attention with the inclusion of Article 12 in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) and subsequent reforms in guardianship systems in signatory countries. Additionally, some high-profile legal cases have garnered national attention and the Administration on Community Living has launched an initiative to explore alternatives, such as supported decision making, all of which has led to renewed interest in this topic. Despite these recent inroads to conversations about guardianship, relatively little scholarship has attempted to address guardianship as a fundamental civil rights issue for people with disabilities or to understand the impact of guardianship on national disability policy goals. This report will attempt to foster understanding of guardianship in the context of disability law and policy and to put forward recommendations that will balance the need for decision-making assistance with the goals of the ADA and in particular the integration mandate outlined in the Olmstead decision.

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