BILL ANALYSIS Ó ----------------------------------------------------------------- |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1041| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- THIRD READING Bill No: AB 1041 Author: Chesbro (D), et al. Amended: 9/3/13 in Senate Vote: 21 SENATE HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE : 5-1, 6/25/13 AYES: Yee, Emmerson, Evans, Liu, Wright NOES: Berryhill SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 6-1, 8/30/13 AYES: De León, Gaines, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg NOES: Walters ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 68-7, 5/29/13 - See last page for vote SUBJECT : Developmental services: Employment First Policy SOURCE : State Council on Developmental Disabilities DIGEST : This bill establishes an Employment First Policy and requires each regional center to consider the policy when developing an individual program plan (IPP) for a transition age youth or working age adult. This bill also requires regional centers to provide consumers aged 16 and older with information about the Employment First Policy, options for integrated competitive employment, and services and supports, including postsecondary education, that are available to enable the consumer to transition from school to work, and to obtain and keep an integrated competitive job. This bill requires the State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) to develop an CONTINUED AB 1041 Page 2 informational brochure and Web site information about options for integrated competitive employment. ANALYSIS : Existing law: 1. Establishes the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, which states that California is responsible for providing an array of services and supports sufficiently complete to meet the needs and choices of each person with developmental disabilities, regardless of age or degree of disability, and at each stage of life and to support their integration into the mainstream life of the community. 2. Establishes a system of nonprofit regional centers to provide fixed points of contact in the community for all persons with developmental disabilities and their families, to coordinate services and supports best suited to them throughout their lifetime. 3. Declares legislative intent that agencies serving persons with developmental disabilities produce evidence that their services have resulted in consumer or family empowerment and in more independent, productive, and normal lives for the persons served. 4. Establishes the IPP process as the central planning process for services and supports of an individual, defines steps that the process must include, states that the plan is developed through individualized needs determination, requires that an individual and, when appropriate, parents or legal guardian, participate in the IPP process. 5. Requires that within the IPP planning process, a regional center must create statement of goals, based on the needs, preferences, and life choices of the individual with developmental disabilities, and a statement of specific, time-limited objectives for implementing the person's goals and addressing his or her needs. 6. States that these goals and objectives should maximize opportunities for the consumer to develop relationships, be part of community life in the areas of community CONTINUED AB 1041 Page 3 participation, housing, work, school, and leisure, increase control over his or her life, acquires increasingly positive roles in community life, and develop competencies to help accomplish these goals. 7. Establishes within the SCDD a standing committee entitled the Employment First Committee and specifies its duties and composition. 8. Includes among those duties the requirement to recommend legislative, regulatory, and policy changes to increase the number of individuals with developmental disabilities in integrated employment, self-employment, and microenterprises, and who earn wages at or above minimum wage. Requires that this include development of an Employment First Policy. 9. Requires that public schools provide an individualized education plan (IEP) for children with exceptional needs that identifies the student's academic needs, sets goals and defines progress toward achieving those goals, and, beginning at age 16, sets appropriate measurable postsecondary goals. 10.Defines "integrated work" as the engagement of an employee with a disability in work in a setting typically found in the community wherein the employee interacts with individuals without disabilities other than those who are providing services to those individuals, to the same extent that individuals without disabilities in comparable positions interact with other persons. This bill establishes a state Employment First Policy for individuals with developmental disabilities, under the Lanterman Act. Specifically this bill: 1.Declares that it is the policy of the state, to be known as the Employment First Policy, that opportunities for integrated, competitive employment be given the highest priority for working age individuals with developmental disabilities, regardless of the severity of their disabilities. 2.Requires implementation of the policy to be consistent with, and not infringe upon, the rights of people with developmental disabilities to make informed choices with respect to services CONTINUED AB 1041 Page 4 and supports through the Individual Program Plan process. 3.Provides that integrated competitive employment is intended to be the first option considered by planning teams for working age adults, but individuals may choose goals other than integrated competitive employment. 4.Adds to the Employment First Committee's responsibilities by: A. Requiring it to identify existing sources of consumer data that can be used to provide demographic information for individuals, including, but not limited to, age, gender, ethnicity, types of disability, and geographic location of consumers, and that can be matched with employment data to identify outcomes and trends of the Employment First Policy. B. Recommending goals for measuring employment participation and outcomes for various consumers within the developmental services system. 1.Requires a regional center planning team to consider the Employment First Policy, as specified, when developing an Individual Program Plan for a transition age youth or working age adult. 2.Provides that provisions of this bill not be construed to expand the existing entitlement to services for persons with disabilities. 3.Provides that provisions of this bill will not alleviate schools of their responsibility to provide transition services to individuals with developmental disabilities. 4.Requires SCDD to develop an informational brochure about the Employment First Policy, translate it into various languages, and to post it on its Web site. 5.Requires regional centers to provide consumers, beginning at 16 years of age with information about the Employment First Policy. Background CONTINUED AB 1041 Page 5 According to the Senate Human Services Committee analysis, employment of individuals with developmental disabilities is a state and national priority. Historically in California, DDS consumers have worked in a range of settings. Those requiring supported employment settings may participate in the Work Activity Program, where services are provided in a sheltered work environment and reimbursed at a daily per capita rate. Consumers also may participate in supported employment work in the community with support services provided by on the job by community rehabilitation programs. However, people with developmental disabilities remain significantly under-represented in the workforce. According to the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, data indicates that just 13% of working age individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities were in competitive or supported employment in 2010. This equates to an unemployment rate of 87% for people with developmental and intellectual disabilities in California, making the state 41st in the nation for the employment of this portion of our population. In recent years, efforts have been made to move more consumers into competitive or supported employment. AB 287 (Beall, Chapter 31, Statutes of 2009) required that the state establish an "Employment First" committee in the State Council on Developmental Disabilities to identify strategies to increase the number of people with developmental disabilities who are employed and earning at least minimum wage. In August 2011, the council released an Employment First report outlining goals and objectives to improve integrated employment outcomes. Objectives include interagency collaboration, transition planning for students in secondary education, obtaining and maintaining employment and assessing the impact of employment on public benefits. The report notes on page 4 that, "Employment First is about focusing on real jobs, real wages, and real business settings for individuals with developmental disabilities to have the ability to increase their income and benefits, accrue assets and build wealth." A subsequent annual report released in 2012 identified critical next steps, including passage of a bill establishing an Employment First Policy for the state. Should this bill pass, according to SCDD, California would become the nineteenth state CONTINUED AB 1041 Page 6 with such a policy. Prior Legislation AB 2338 (Chesbro, 2012) was virtually identical to this bill. That bill was held on the Senate Appropriations Committee's suspense file. AB 254 (Beall, 2011) was substantially similar to this bill and required a regional center to be guided by the Employment First policy in developing the IPP of a transitional-age youth. AB 287 (Beall, Chapter 231, Statutes of 2009) established the Employment First Committee as a standing committee of the SCDD to identify strategies and best practices for significantly increasing the numbers of people with developmental disabilities in competitive integrated employment and the number who earn wages at or above minimum wage. AB 2424 (Beall, 2008) would have established an employment-first policy and made significant changes to the IPP process and imposed responsibilities on regional centers and DDS related to the development of materials, the provision of information, and the conduct of IPP meetings. It was held by the Senate Appropriations Committee. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Unknown potential increase in demand for supported employment services by regional centers (General Fund and federal funds). By making competitive employment the highest priority for individuals with developmental disabilities, it is likely that there will be increased demand for the services that assist individuals with developmental disabilities in successfully attaining competitive employment, such as supported employment services. Some regional center consumers may require additional supported employment services, while continuing to receive day program or sheltered workshop services, until the consumer is ready for competitive employment. In the short run, this is likely to increase overall program costs. CONTINUED AB 1041 Page 7 Unknown potential increase in demand for pre-vocational training services by special education local plan areas (General Fund). Under current law, school-age individuals with developmental disabilities are entitled to certain special education services, including services to assist the individual with the transition from school to employment. Under an Employment First Policy, there may be additional demand for pre-vocational services. Unknown potential long-term savings due to reduced demand for sheltered workshop services or day program services. To the extent that the Employment First Policy is successful in assisting regional center consumers with achieving long-term competitive employment, there is likely to be a reduction in the demand for other services. It is important to note that regional centers spend, on average, about $4,100 per consumer per year on individual supported employment services, while the regional centers spend on average $5,300 for sheltered workshop services and $11,700 for day programs. SUPPORT : (Verified 9/3/13) State Council on Developmental Disabilities (source) Alameda County Developmental Disabilities Planning and Advisory Council The Alliance The ARC California California State PTA Developmental Disabilities Area Board 10 Disability Rights California East Bay Developmental Disabilities Legislative Coalition East Bay Innovations Self-Advocacy Board of Los Angeles County State Independent Living Council Tarjan Center at UCLA United Cerebral Palsy USC University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author states that AB 1041 would prioritize opportunities for integrated competitive employment for working age individuals with developmental disabilities, regardless of the severity of their disabilities. For the last 40 years it has been the policy of the State of California, CONTINUED AB 1041 Page 8 through the Lanterman Developmental Services Act, that people with developmental disabilities be supported "to approximate the pattern of everyday living available to people without disabilities of the same age ? to be integrated into the mainstream of life in their home communities" and to receive services and supports that enable them to live "more independent, productive, and normal lives." However, the author states that California has failed to adequately support people with developmental disabilities to achieve one of the central elements of leading a normal, productive life: employment. ASSEMBLY FLOOR : 68-7, 5/29/13 AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Ammiano, Atkins, Bigelow, Bloom, Blumenfield, Bocanegra, Bonilla, Bonta, Bradford, Brown, Buchanan, Ian Calderon, Campos, Chau, Chávez, Chesbro, Cooley, Dahle, Daly, Dickinson, Eggman, Fong, Fox, Frazier, Garcia, Gatto, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gorell, Gray, Grove, Hagman, Hall, Roger Hernández, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Levine, Linder, Lowenthal, Maienschein, Medina, Mitchell, Morrell, Mullin, Muratsuchi, Nazarian, Nestande, Olsen, Pan, Perea, V. Manuel Pérez, Quirk, Quirk-Silva, Rendon, Salas, Skinner, Stone, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wieckowski, Wilk, Williams, Yamada, John A. Pérez NOES: Allen, Donnelly, Beth Gaines, Harkey, Logue, Melendez, Wagner NO VOTE RECORDED: Conway, Holden, Mansoor, Patterson, Vacancy JL:AL:nl 9/3/13 Senate Floor Analyses SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END **** CONTINUED