North Dakota Becomes Latest State to Drop R-Word from Statutes
Community Services Reporter (CSR), August 2011,published monthly by the National Association of State Directors of Developmental Disabilities Services (NASDDDS)

The North Dakota legislature has passed a bill removing the term “mental retardation” from state code. The law amends and reenacts all sections of the North Dakota Century Code relating that contain the term, replacing it with “intellectual disability,” and replacing “mentally retarded” with “intellectually disabled.” The law is comprehensive and provides guidelines for future legislation, while not altering services or eligibility for individuals with a disability. Tina Bay, Director of the Developmental Disabilities Division in the Department of Human Services in North Dakota, testified in favor of the bill. During her testimony, she indicated that her department had “received written approval from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to make the change from Intermediate Care Facility for the Mentally Retarded to Intermediate Care Facility for the Intellectually Disabled.”

FMI: Director Bay’s testimony is available at http://www.nd.gov/dhs/info/testimony/2011/house–human–services/sb2142–3–8–11–changing–mr–to–id.pdf.