Jones: Closure of Glenwood Resource Center

Last week, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced that the Glenwood Resource Center will close in 2024. GRC is one of two state-run resource centers in Iowa to serve Iowans with intellectual disabilities. GRC serves around 150 Iowans and has over 560 full-time staff members.

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Justice began its investigation of Glenwood Resource Center, and DHS began immediately gathering information, notifying family members, staff and legislators of the DOJ investigation and working to determine what immediate actions were necessary to ensure safety of the patients at GRC. DOJ has since determined that the State of Iowa over-relies on institutional settings, like Glenwood, for serving Iowans with disabilities. To learn more about the DOJ investigation and reports, please visit: https://dhs.iowa.gov/doj.

The governor announced that over the next two years, GRC will continue to provide care to its residents while working with their guardians and families to transition them to community placements or the Woodward Resource Center. Existing staff at GRC will receive retention incentives to continue to work at GRC through this time.

This week the House provided financial support in the HHS Budget to expand opportunities for community placements by providing significant increases to home and community-based services rates, increasing the number of slots by 250 to the intellectual disability waiver, and providing rate increases to Iowa’s ICF/ID facilities. The House is dedicated to ensuring that Iowans being transitioned out of GRC over the next two years have a new home that provides all the supports they need.

Rep. Megan Jones, R-Sioux Rapids, serves Clay, Palo Alto and parts of Dickinson counties in Iowa House District 2.