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>> Tonight on "nj spotlight newr citizens with developmental disabilities reveals a shocking report revealing ongoing Ince toofns abuse and neglect.

>> We know if you pay staff a living wage, provide adequate training and hold them to standards, you'll have less turnover of staff and less abuse and the gleblght.

>> Plus analysis of school funding show yours property tax dollars may not be going to fund your kids' education.

Also, farm labor find.

A new suit says the state's wage laws discriminate against farm workers.

>> We're all humans.

We should all have the same rates as workers and human beings.

>> And summer safety.

The boys' and girls' club are sponsoring a water safety camp to prevent accidental drownings.

>> The first thing to know is black and brown communities are at a way higher risk for drowning and water incidents.

>> "Nj spotlight news" begins now.

♪ ANNOUNCER: This is "nj spotlight news" with brianna vanozzi.

We begin with an urgent call for reform on behalf of New Jersey's most vulnerable residents.

A new report paints a stark picture of systemic failures within the state that are hurting the thousands of individuals here with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

It details a lack of oversight, enabling continued abuse at state-run homes along with too few supports blocked by walls of bureaucracy to help those residents and their families.

But perhaps the most shocking is the lack of progress by leadership at all state levels to hold agencies accountable when they've erred or to install to checks and balances on the millions of state funds that flow to these in a silties.

Many of the recommendations made by the New Jersey ombudsman for New Jerseyans with developmental disabilities and their families, have been made year after year.

He joins me to talk about the most serious among them.

Thank you for coming in to talk about this report.

You say it's a call to action for some of the most severe, persistent challenges facing the lives of these residents.

What are they?

Can you lay them out for us?

>> First of all, let me tell you about our awsms by the nature of our office, folks come to us for assistance are usually ones that have a time-sensitive situation.

They're in crisis.

Last problem.

So we're not -- >> You're not getting calls when things are sunny and rosy.

>> Right.

We get it when folks are in need.

What we do, we outlined this in our report, we get daily calls and conversations about abuse and neglect in living settings for children and adults.

We work with families that have severe autism, autism with severe, challenging behavior, self-injurious may haver.

Children as well as adults.

We work closely with folks who have medical complexities that are not being met.

Those supports.

Private duty nursing or whatever needs they have are not being met.

Those are folks we're dealing with on a daily basis.

>> When you look at that would you say abuse and neglect is still by and large the biggest issue being brought to your attention?

>> Yeah.

I would definitely say that.

I can't quantify that.

I can't quantify how much, what percentage of folks are experiencing aBuse and neglect but I can tell you daily, these are the families, these are the individuals we're working with most.

>> I read some of the anecdotes in this report, I'll just share a couple, quite frankly they are disturb, they are emotional and I imagine that's why you decided to include them.

One parent wrote in that her son was found eating raw frozen meat multiple times.

Another that her son was abused of -- after being shuffled between group homes to the point of hospitalization.

And then others where there are unexpected deaths.

And the state's not investigating them.

Why?

>> It's a good question.

On one hand you'd think the state would investigate all deaths in group home settings but definitely the unexpected ones.

When they have an individual who's otherwise healthy, living fine, you'd expect that there would be an automatic default that we'd be investigating them and apparently we are not.

>> Is anyone having oversight over a situation like that?

>> The department of human service you know, for adults and the department of children and families for children.

But again, they're the ones that are responsible for conducting these investigations, but apparently it's just not happening.

You know all the time.

When you would think it would be.

>> It's being left to agencies themselves to self-investigate?

>> You know, so, when it comes to deaths, I think there's always a mortality review that's done.

A cursory review of the situation.

But it's not an investigation into, you know, why -- what happened.

What led to this death.

Particularly again if it's unexpected.

Investigations more generally are either done by the agency, the private agency, or by the state.

More often than not though it's done by private agency.

>> The report also lays out just different areas, of course, that you are looking at that are -- that come up as issues for families.

Housing being one.

The lack of supports.

But what stood out to me the most that you looked at was money.

There doesn't seem to be a lack of it coming from the state.

The governor put about a billion dollars more into the budget toward these services.

And yet these agencies are not responsible for making sure the money is going where it needs to go.

How can that be?

>> It's an excellent question.

That's something we find concerning.

Again, we -- since I took this job over six years ago, I rarely if ever say that we need to put more money in the system.

Certainly we could use it, like everyone could.

Certain families cowl use more resources.

But the governor, governor Murphy and the legislature, have been generous in terms of dedicated financial resources to the folks with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

But there seems to be a lack of oversight as to how the agencies are spending the money.

>> So give us an example.

I know agencies are given a certain pot of money.

There's a threshold for what they need to pay their direct support eproviders fasm list an individual who was a budget through the state, they have a different pot of money and different rules.

Can you make sense of that for us?

>> I'll do my best.

It gets into themy knew shah.

-- into the minutiae.

On the one hand you have self-directing families in the adult.

Is these are families with a nice budget from the state and are able to spend it to hire staff as needed for their loved one.

And they can do that.

But there's a certain set of rule and limitations placed on them that are not placed on the agencies.

>> There's also no public reporting of revenues for these agencies.

Nursing homes have that.

Long-term care providers have that.

The state is really allowing minimal training for these workers for them to be paid low wages and have little supports.

I know you are not in the business of make recommendations but what's the takeaway?

>> You know, I look at it this way.

Everything we do in this space is hard.

Right?

For people working in government, making policies on this, for the direct care workers if the providers, educators.

Everybody.

Most of this is not easy.

But none of it is rocket science either.

It's real common sense.

Take staffing for example.

We know that if you paid staff a living wage, provide the right am of train, hold them to the right standards, you'll not only have less turnover but less abuse and neglect.

It's simple.

Very common sense.

We look at folks with autism.

Severe autism.

We know if we intervene early, early intervention, we identify it early and provide treatments and therapies, we know we'll make a better life for the individual and family.

A lot of this is difficult but it's common sense.

I think we can find our way forward.

We just need to -- I quoted my mom at the end of this report, something she -- she always had these pearls of wisdom.

Something she said to us as children and as adults, where there's a will, there's a way.

I really believe that.

>> Paul, thank you so much.

>> Support for the medical report is provide by horizon blue cross blue shield of New Jersey.

An independent licensee of the blue cross blue shield association.

>> The fight between the government's watchdog agency and Hudson county is escalating the tomp controller is tight -- is suing the county for an order given not to move forward with a $13 million health care contract at the county jail.

According to an investigation by the comptroller, the county never put the contract out for public bid, a violation of state law.

After warning officials at the county jail back in March, state comptroller Kevin marsh said they moved forward with the deal anyway.

County representatives dispute this they say health care contracts can't go out for bidding like other deals.

In the wake of the comptroller's directive and separate skating reports exposing misconduct and waste in three other county, local officials began calling for an investigation into the watchdog agency itself, claiming it needs more oversight.

>> The new annual state budget was hailed by Democrats this year for for included a record amount of schooled afunding, a spending item pitched as a way to benefit students and taxpayers alike.

It increases schooled a, supposed to equal property tax relief.

In anagecy by "N.J. spotlight news" found the rates have risen by more than average in most districts including those who have gotten more aid.

I'm joined by our senior writer, Coleen O'Day.

Co-line -- Coleen, gad to see you.

We've heard this time and again not just from governors but lawmakers.

Every dollar, every penny that goes toward our school sas dollar for taxpayers.

To save in their own pockets.

But I mean, you looked at the numbers and found that's not necessarily the case.

>> Yeah, you know, and that was the reason we looked at it.

Because this was something governor Murphy specifically said in his address this year to the legislature.

And republicans were saying, governor, that's not the case.

So we decided to take a look at it.

Indeed, you know if you -- if you got more schooled aand a lot more schooled aover the course of this law, is 2, which -- s 2 which is fully funded, you get more property tax relief.

But still more districts had increases higher than the state average which was roughly 13% of the property tax bill.

Whereas if you got aid cuts or your aid didn't keep up with inflation, then it was 2/3's or more of districts had these large tax increases.

>> So you're saying taxes went up regardless of whether your school district had an increase or a cut in the aid.

How can that be?

>> It's kind of counterintuitive, isn't it you know, we know that school funding or school spending is not the only driver of property tax increases.

But it really is the largest one.

It's typically half or a little bit more than that, fending on the district of your property tax bill goes for schools.

Absolutely there could have been towns that had issues.

Where they raised taxes or county spending may have gone up.

But certainly schools are the largest driver and it did seem strange to me that even districts that had, and again we looked at, we tried to adjust the aid for inflation which was roughly 26% over this time period.

And even if you got inflation, you know, an increase in aid more than inflation went up, your property taxes more than likely still went up.

By more than 13%.

>> Give us another example of where we saw, where in the state we saw the taxes increase and yet the students are now having to pay, you know, fees to participate in high school sports or to be in their drama club at school where the aid was cut.

So their parents are still feeling the burden.

Where are some examples of that?

>> So I think the most striking for me was Dover in Morris county.

Their aid after -- again after you adjust for inflation was up by about a third over 2017-2018.

And yet they've had to raise taxes by about 26%.

Over that time.

Or the town has raised taxes about 26% over that time period.

The school district has increased its tax Levi, the amount of money they request in taxes.

So they've gotten a lot more aid.

They have been forced to increase school taxes because they're essentially being forced by the state to spend more money on their students.

>> What's going to happen with s 2?

Are lawmakers talking about taking another crack Ott the school funding formula which has been cracked at for tech kids and no one seems to be able to find the right solution?

>> Absolutely.

There was so much discussion this year, in particular, remember, this was the year where the final impact of s 2 came into play.

The governor really wanted to fully fund this formula.

He's been proud he's done it.

But as a result of that, these districts, it's about 140 districts that, according to the formula, were overfunded during the, I think it's about a seven-year period previously, had to kind of essentially give money back in terms of, you know, getting these cuts in aid.

We talk about asburay park, a good example of unintended consequences.

It's a town that still has an income that's lower than the state's.

Poverty rate that's higher than the state's.

More students in -- in need who are getting free or reduced lunches.

Yet they've had a huge reduction in aid.

And taxes there have gone up more than 50%.

>> And you can check out your town, I know, on the website, off whole chart there for folks to check out in your article.

Coleen O'Day, thanks so much.

>> Thank you.

>> New protections are now in place for New Jersey's immigrant workers.

Acting governor tahisha ray signed legislation requiring civil penalties be put on any employer who disclosed or threatened to disclose a worker's immigration status in order to cover up their own labor violations.

These are things like wage theft or breaking tax laws that go unreported because immigrant workers are too intimidated to come forward.

It comes on the theestles complaint filed claiming the state is breaking the constitution by excluding farm woarser -- farm workers from wage and hour laws.

>> When you're thirsty do you go to the water fountain and get a cup of watt her.

>> Edgar remembers his days as a farm worker and how a simple glass of water was hard to come by in a hot afternoon of picking vegetables on a farm.

What started as a summer job has become his mission.

He's an organizer for the committee in support of agricultural workers.

>> The message I want to get across is we're all humans.

And the bare minimum that we can all have is at least have the same rights as workers and as human beings.

>> But in New Jersey where he minimum wage has hit the $15 hour a goal for most workers, farmworkers make around $12 an hour.

That's not some arbitrary number.

That's in the New Jersey state minimum wage law.

Over time -- overtime, nah.

>> Farmworkers are explicitly carved out here.

It aligns with what we know about farmworkers generally.

They are especially here in New Jersey they are primarily latine, Spanish speakers, oftentimes migrant farm workers, coming here seasonally, not New Jersey resident, can't vote in the state and don't have access to legislatures in the same way that industry does.

>> The aclu of New Jersey where Molly lindhorse is an attorney has joined with the center for social justice at Seton hall law school has filed a suit to force the state to see and treat farmworkers like other workers, by raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour and making them eligible for overtime.

Jenny brook compton at the center for social justice at Seton hall, said the state law made in 2019 is based on decades-old federal laws that are intended to discriminate against minority workers.

>> There's no justification for the law.

I teach constitutional law here at Seton hall.

As I teach my students about equal protection it's a basic and fundamental principle that groups that are alike should be treated alike.

And farmworkers have the need for fair wages, a livable wage, dignity, safety, and their health, just like every other worker.

Yet they are targeted for exclusions under New Mexico's law that other similarly situated workers receive.

There's no justification for that.

>> Health is one of the things that I prioritize, I don't want to miss a day of work because I don't want to lose out on money.

Not only that, groceries.

Groceries are getting expensive.

As the years go by.

And that's another thing that -- they will not worry as much about, the cost of groceries.

>> The suit was filed this week so it's in its earliest stages farm workers hope the state will come to the table and recognize that the Jersey fresh label couldn't exist without laborers who make up the farm part of the farm to table movement.

I'm David Cruz.

"Nj spotlight news."

>> In our spotlight on business report tonight, the federal environmental protection agency is pulling a pesticide from the market that's been linked to serious health risks in unborn babies.

It's the first emergency action of its kind taken by the regulatory agency in 40 years and applies to a weed killer known as dcpa used on crops like Brock lee, brussel sprouts, cabbage and onions.

According to the E.P.A., the pesticide can cause changes to a fetus' thyroid levels.

The move is an effort to protect pregnant farm workers who are at greatest risk of being exposed to the pesticide but consumers can be A.F.C.ked by residue left on their produce.

Dcpa has been banned in the European union since 2009.

Turning to Wall Street, stocks rebounded today.

Here's how the markets closed.

>> Finally tonight therks leading cause of unintentional death for young children.

And it affects black and brown kids at higher rates.

Drowning.

It kills nearly 1,000 children every year in the U.S.

But a summer safety champ hosted by the -- camp hosted by the boys and girls club in the Passaic area is reaching hundreds of kids, teaching swim lessons and life-saving skills so they don't have to choose between fun in the water and the risks that come with it.

Raven Santana visited the cap to see how it's working.

>> I want to show you how to wear the lifesaving jacket and we're going to jump in the water.

>> Nearly 100 students ages 6 through 10 par days pated in a four-day water safety camp at the boys and girls club in Passaic.

The first group included 7-year-old Skyler who said she didn't know how to swim before attending the water safety and drowning prevention program.

Now she has her eyes set on a new challenge.

>> To swim in the deep aisle.

>> The program, which focuses on teaching students how to swim and other life-saving skill, was fully funded by the Zach foundation, which was established by Karen and BryanCON.

after the loss of their 6-year-old son Zachary archer, who drowned in their backyard pool.

>> It's the leading cause of death in 3-4 and the second leading cause in kids 5-14.

Those are the ages we serve.

>> She said the comprehensive program splits campers into three groups to learn a variety of skills.

>> Classroom instruction on water safety.

They receive instruction from local first responders.

And also in the pool.

They're going to have pool time.

They're going to learn techniques like floating and also swimming.

>> 10-year-old Luna has been coming to the boys and girls club for more than five years and credits the program for making her a better swimmer.

>> I'm learning how to swim a lot.

I want to get like a scholarship so I can swim because I love swimming and I love water.

It was really fun for me.

And I had a lot of fun.

Now it's going back to my little brother because now he's learning how to swim and I'm so proud of him.

>> I think the first thing that's important to know is that black and brown communities are at a way higher risk for drowning and water safety incidents.

So we are trying to address that because that's the community that we serve here.

We're 70% Hispanic and Latinx communities.

The majority of our staff do have some familiarity with Spanish and many are bilingual including our aquatics director.

>> It's almost just deflecting themselves on me.

They're like, he can do this we can do it too.

>> In addition to learning to swim, children are taught how to help others who may find themselves in danger after entering the water.

>> He reached and told don't go.

You literally, you -- use something that's around your area.

A friend of yours is maybe drowning, alert the lifeguard real quick.

If they're far away, look for something nearby that you can reach out to the person.

Don't go in the water, stay in the safety position for yourself on the deck and help him out of the pool to get back to the pool deck.

>> A lot of our kids, when they are learning how to swim, it's do swim lessons here or the opportunities they have in the summer to to have swimming.

The boys and girls club is known for being the place where kids learn to swim.

We ensure that's a place that's available to them.

We want to make sure they have access to learn to swim here.

>> I'm raven Santana.

>> That's going to do it for us tonight.

Before you go a reminer to download the "nj spotlight news" podcast to listen to us anytime.

For the interteam at "nj spotlight news" thank you for being with us.

Have a great evening, we'll see you tomorrow.

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