The bill comes about six months after a coalition of disability rights organizations announced plans to lobby Connecticut legislators to close the facilities and redirect the state funding to provide residential services to an estimated 2,000 people with intellectual disabilities. Sen. Terry Gerratana, D-New Britain, co-chairwoman of the General Assembly's Public Health Committee, said the Department of Developmental Services commissioner would have to return to state lawmakers with a plan for closing the six facilities or changing their purpose, while still meeting the needs of the approximate 485 clients they now serve. The General Assembly's Program Review and Investigations Committee released a report in 2012 that determined Connecticut's dual system of public and private services for the developmentally disabled is costly and recommended the state eventually shift to a fully private system. State employees and some family members and guardians have opposed the possible closure of Southbury Training School, which was built in the late 1930s and has been the subject of various legal actions over the years.