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NJ group home provides face fines

Families doubt new law will do much for safety

By: Ashley Balcerzak
and Jean Rimbach
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... New Jersey's private companies running group homes for individuals with developmental disabilities will face fines for the first time under a bill January 18 [2026] - a measure passed amid public outcry that the state does not hold provides accountable when the vulnerable under their care are harmed.
..... But it's unclear how often - if at all - fines will be used. Before many of the penalties can be levied, the state would have to take substantial action against a group home provider.
..... In its 2025 investigation Hidden at Home, NorthJersey.com revealed that the agency overseeing group homes - the Department of Human Services - frequently fails to use its existing power to hit providers' pocketbooks, such as halting new admissions or development of new homes for companies with patterns of abuse and neglect.
..... What's more, just 2% of all reported incidents are investigated by the state, NorthJersey.com found in its investigation into New Jersey's $1.5 billion group home system. In most cases, companies investigate themselves.
..... "This bill is about building a system that enforces countability," said senator Joseph Vitale, D-Middlesex, the bill's sponsor. "By authorizing DHS to levy penalties when providers fail to meet safety and care standards, we're sending a clear message: Substandard care will to be tolerated."
..... But not all families of individuals with disabilities expect fines to keep their loved ones safe.
..... "On their own, imposing financial penalties will not stop ongoing ruthless and disturbing patterns of abuse," said parent advocate Donna Icovino. "Holding abusers legally accountable would be a crucial turning point in our efforts to protect people with [intellectual or developmental disabilities] that financial sanctions alone cannot match."
..... It is rare for prosecutors to charge companies criminally; NorthJersey.com found just two examples - against Elwyn and Broadway Group Homes - since 2018.
..... Among the new fines that first require strong state action, companies would be penalized up to:
*$5,000 every three months if assigned a Quality Management Team - a panel of state officials that meets periodically to review and fix what's going wrong at a company. Only seven companies have faced this highest level of state oversight. The bill says the sate "may" impose this fine, but doesn't appear to require it.
* $25,000 for a substantiated finding form the state Office of Investigations in six categories of serous abuse, neglect and exploitation. But this state office investigates a sliver of such cases each year: In 2024, the Office of Investigations substantiated about 70 cases of abuse, neglect and exploitation - compared with 1,000 substantiated by group homes themselves, according to state incident data.
* $10,000 for a second provisional license given to homes where inspectors find issues that"directly endanger the health, safety or wellbeing' of residents. documents show that fewer than 60 homes received a "repeat" or "second" provisional license in the last seven years - meaning a company did not correct issues after inspectors returned. There are more than 2,000 homes across the state.
* $10,000 on the third time they fail to run required criminal background checks or drug testing of their workers. First, a company would be required to write a plan of correction, and after a second violation, they wouldn't be allowed to accept new residents. The state currently has the power to suspend admissions but has rarely used it.
..... Proposed fines up to$10,000 would also be imposed on companies that operate without a license, when one is required, don't submit a plan of correction, employ someone who was paced on the Central registry of Offenders or child abuse registry and fail to conduct an internal investigation and submit a report within six months.
..... Many group home companies have said the fine thresholds are too high, but they were largely supportive of the legislation after lawmakers weakened it to allow the stat4e to consider a company's history when determining the amount of a fine.
..... The state must weigh whether a company has "a history or pattern of repeated violations," its compliance with investigations and plans of correction, and whether the company has taken action to prevent future incidents.
..... Libby Vinson, CEO of the New Jersey Association of Community Providers, called the bill "important" but told lawmakers the state had to be careful that fines didn't affect the quality of care.
..... "We have to be incredibly judicious in the implementation of this legislation, Vinson said during a December [2025] Assembly hearing. "Thee are Medicaid dollars that need to go to the individuals. My concern is the impact on the individuals we serve."
..... Group homes can collect more than $500,000 per resident each year, depending on the individual's needs.
..... Outgoing ombudsman Paul Aronsohn has recommended for years in his annual reports that New Jersey implement fines, and he called the law a "big, important step forward."
..... "Provider agencies penalized under this law should be required to pay their monetary fines with privately raised monies, rather than taxpayer dollars," he said.
..... The Legislature wrote in the bill that it cuckold not quantify how much in fines the state would collect and add to a "Residential Facility Quality of Care Improvement Fund," which could be spent on "quality improvement initiatives" and cover administrative costs to implement the bill.
..... New Jersey has six months to implement the fines, but the commissioner "may take anticipatory administrative action in advance," the bill says.
..... It passed the Senate 37-0 and the Assembly 70-0.

Study - not overhaul - of how investigations are conducted

..... The fines were part of a legislative package scripted largely by the Department of Human Services.
..... Murphy also signed into law S3754, creating a 13-membr advisory committee to review certain deaths of people with developmental disabilities, as well as cases of abuse, neglect or exploitation. It gives the committee two years to conduct the review.
..... The committee's work would be confidential. The human services commissioner would review its findings and recommendation and then prepare a report for the governor. The bill passed the Senate 38-0 and Assembly 72-0.
..... Aronsohn said representatives from the ombudsman's office and the Attorney General's Office should be included on the review board, which should be housed in an independent government agency. The members - appointed by the Human Services commissioners include human service representatives, an individual with disabilities, two family members, a licensed physician and a professional with experience in child abuse investigation.
..... The law does not radically change how investigations are conducted, a wish some parent advocates are calling for. Now, most investigations are handled by group home themselves, and companies often provide families with little explanation or information about their conclusions.
..... What's more, human services rarely investigates unexpected deaths of group home residents, handling has than 10% of such cases in the last six years. NorthJersey.com found that an average of 120 New Jersey group home residents die each year of unexpected causes, meaning they were not in hospice or palliative care.
..... Some families are pushing to move investigations out of the hands of providers and the state Department of Human Services and into the Office of the Attorney General or an independent agency, pointing to New York as an example. under the third bill Murphy signed S3751, investigation into the abuse and neglect of people between 18 and 20 years old will be handled by the Department of Children and Families, away from the Department of Human Services.
..... The most substantial bill in the package did not advance, S3752 would have strictly limited how program revenue could be spent an capped executive compensation, administrative costs and profit at 15%.
..... Another bill, S3755, which would establish a framework to appoint a receiver to oversee petitions at troubled group home companies, also stalled. Lawmakers must reintroduce legislation to be heard in the 2026-207 session.

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