October 06, 2010
President Obama Signs Rosa's Law
President Barack Obama has signed into law Rosa’s Law, which will change references in federal law from mental retardation to intellectual disability, and references to a mentally retarded individual to an individual with an intellectual disability. Read about the Special Olympics' campaign to Spread the Word to End the Word, and read the Disability.Blog post 'I Just Didn’t Know’: The Power of Language. For more information visit the website of the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities.
Rosa’s Law replicates a law recently adopted in the state of Maryland. The family of Rosa Marcellino, a nine year-old girl with Down syndrome, worked with their state representative to pass the legislation in the Maryland General Assembly. Shortly before it passed the Assembly, Senator Mikulski met Rosa’s mother Nina Marcellino at a roundtable on special education. Senator Mikulski promised that if Rosa’s Law passed in Maryland, she’d take it to the Senate floor.
