Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN — The U.S. Department of Justice will investigate conditions inside all of Texas’ state schools for people with disabilities, according to a letter sent to Gov. Rick Perry this week.

The Justice Department has already investigated allegations of civil rights violations inside two of Texas’ 13 state schools, following reports of widespread abuse and neglect at those facilities. Friday’s announcement indicates federal investigators have reason to believe there may be violations inside Texas' 11 other facilities.

 “To me, this is the beginning of an end of an era,” said Jeff Garrison-Tate, whose non-profit Community NOW advocates closing the state schools in favor of independent living options or home-based care. “For the Department of Justice to go into all state facilities clearly indicates that this is a statewide, systemic issue.”

Laura Albrecht, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, said the agency will “cooperate fully with the Department of Justice.” She said it’s unclear how soon the federal review will begin.

A spokeswoman with the Department of Justice said the agency’s civil rights division is the one investigating Texas’ state schools. Jamie Hais said she couldn’t comment further on the “open investigation.”

In the letter to Gov. Perry, Acting Assistant Attorney General Grace Chung Becker said the investigation will “determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or laws of the United States in the conditions at the facilities.” She said it will “focus on protection of residents from harm … and the placement of residents in the most integrated setting as required by the Americans With Disabilities Act.”

Advocates for the disabled have been clamoring for years about abuse and neglect inside Texas’ state schools, the large institutions that have been mostly phased out across the country. For more than a year, The News has documented conditions inside these and other state facilities, finding hundreds of cases of confirmed abuse and neglect.

A 2006 report on the Justice Department’s investigation into the Lubbock State School found shoddy health care, mistreatment and more than 17 deaths in an 18-month period.

In March, federal officials announced they would go into the Denton State School. The case that probably drew them to Denton involves Hasib Chishty, a young man who was beaten into a coma in 2002 by an employee in the throes of a drug-induced rage. Mr. Chishty, 34, now uses a wheelchair and must be fed through a tube. The same year he was attacked, the Denton State School received its best state audit in 17 years.

State school officials say the services their facilities provide are vital to Texans with disabilities, and that they are constantly making improvements in the quality of care. In recent years, they have changed superintendents at eight state schools and have begun hiring more than 1,600 new employees, in addition to overhauling management and programming at the Lubbock State School.

Allison Castle, Gov. Perry’s press secretary, said the Justice Department’s letter was “not a surprise.”

“We expected that DOJ would expand their investigation to all state schools as they have done in other states,” she said. “Gov. Perry is always interested in ways to improve state government and to ensure the safety and security of our most vulnerable citizens.”