42 U.S.C. § 15111 — Findings

Congress made these findings: (1) Direct support workers, especially young adults, have played key roles helping people with developmental disabilities and expanding what they can do in the community. (2) Four factors have shrunk the pool of available direct support workers: (A) fewer people aged 18 through 25 — the age group that used to be drawn to this work; (B) the fast growth of the service sector, which now attracts people who used to become direct support workers; (C) wages in human services not keeping up with wages in other service jobs; and (D) a lack of good training and career growth for direct support workers. (3) People with developmental disabilities benefit when their direct support workers are well trained, and they also benefit from professionals who once worked as direct support workers themselves.