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MRDD boards expected to change names

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By Justin McClelland, Staff Writer 7:21 PM Monday, June 15, 2009

Two area agencies serving those with disabilities are expecting to change their names this year.

The superintendent of the Warren County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities said she expects the board will remove the term “mental retardation” from its name later this year.

Megan Manuel, superintendent of the Warren County MRDD said the move is based off a state bill removing the term from the state board and all county boards.

The Ohio House of Representatives voted unanimously to remove “mental retardation” from the Department of MRDD and all 88 County Boards of MRDD on Wednesday, June 10, according to Linda Oda, spokeswoman for the Ohio Association of County Boards of MRDD . The Ohio Senate and Gov. Ted Strickland must also approve the measure, but there appears to be little-to-no opposition to the name change.

“Every legislator understood that this bill wasn’t about money or politics. It was about the people with developmental disabilities in Ohio and their families,” Oda said.

Manuel said the Warren County MRDD board had already put forth a resolution to change its name last December but decided to postpone the name change when a state law was introduced.

Meanwhile, Butler County Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities will change its name in August, according to MRDD Superintendent Christina Hurr.

That agency is waiting on advice from the county prosecutor’s office that they can’t change the name until the state bill gets final approval. That likely won’t happen until just before the MRDD board’s August meeting, she said.

Hurr hopes to organize a celebration of the name change, which local MRDD clients have advocated for years.

Oda said the bill came about almost two years ago when people with developmental disabilities in Athens County visited their board of MRDD and asked for the change.

Staff Writer Josh Sweigart contributed to this report.

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