California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Bill No. 1232

Introduced by Assembly Member V. Manuel Pérez

February 22, 2013

An act to amend Section 4571 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to developmental services.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

AB 1232, as introduced, V. Manuel Pérez. Developmental services: quality assessment system.

Under existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, the State Department of Developmental Services is authorized to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities. Existing law requires the department to implement a quality assessment system, as prescribed, to enable the department to assess the performance of the state’s developmental services system and to improve services for consumers. Under existing law, the department is required, in consultation with stakeholders, to identify a valid and reliable quality assurance instrument that assesses consumer and family satisfaction, provision of services, and personal outcomes, and, among other things, includes outcome-based measures such as health, safety, and well-being. Under existing law, the department is required to contract with an independent agency or organization that is, in part, experienced in designing valid quality assurance instruments, to implement the system.

This bill would require the quality assurance instrument to assess the provision of services in a linguistically and culturally competent manner and include an outcome-based measure on issues of equity and diversity. This bill would require the independent agency or organization the department contracts with to be experienced in issues relating to linguistic and cultural competency.

Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes. State-mandated local program: no.

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:

SECTION 1.  

The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(a) The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act
requires that regional centers provide services to consumers in a
manner that is determined by the individual program plan (IPP)
or the individual family service plan (IFSP).

(b) The act requires the active participation of the consumer,
and his or her family, in the planning and implementation of the
IPP and the IFSP.

(c) The IPP and the IFSP and all regional center services must
be provided in a linguistically and culturally competent manner
for the consumer.

(d) Existing law requires the State Department of Developmental
Services to establish a quality assessment system to provide
evaluation and oversight for regional center services.

(e) The department has established a contractual relationship
with the National Core Indicators to meet these statutory
requirements with an annual expenditure of $3,235,000 for the
2012-13 fiscal year.

(f) The current quality assessment system does not require
evaluation or oversight on issues of equity and diversity to ensure
that regional center services are provided in a linguistically and
culturally competent manner.

SEC. 2.  

Section 4571 of the Welfare and Institutions Code is
amended to read:

4571.  

(a) It is the intent of the Legislature to ensure the
well-being of consumers, taking into account their informed and
expressed choices. It is further the intent of the Legislature to
support the satisfaction and success of consumers through the
delivery of quality services and supports. Evaluation of the services
that consumers receive is a key aspect to the service system.
Utilizing the information that consumers and their families provide
about begin delete such end delete begin insert those end insert services in a reliable and meaningful way is also
critical to enable the department to assess the performance of the
state’s developmental services system and to improve services for
consumers in the future. To that end, the State Department of
Developmental Services, on or before January 1, 2010, shall
implement an improved, unified quality assessment system, in
accordance with this section.

(b) The department, in consultation with stakeholders, shall
identify a valid and reliable quality assurance instrument that
begin delete includes assessments of end delete begin insert assesses end insert consumer and family satisfaction,
provision of services begin insert in a linguistically and culturally competent
manner end insert , and personal outcomes. The instrument shall do all of the
following:

(1) Provide nationally validated, benchmarked, consistent,
reliable, and measurable data for the department’s Quality
Management System.

(2) Enable the department and regional centers to compare the
performance of California’s developmental services system against
other states’ developmental services systems and to assess quality
and performance among all of the regional centers.

(3) Include outcome-based measures such as health, safety,
well-being, relationships, interactions with people who do not have
a disability, employment, quality of life, integration, choice,
service, and consumer satisfaction.

begin insert

(4) Include outcome-based measures on issues of equity and
diversity to evaluate the linguistic and cultural competency of
regional center services that are provided to consumers across
their lifetime.

end insert

(c) To the extent that funding is available, the instrument
identified in subdivision (b) may be expanded to collect additional
data requested by the State Council on Developmental Disabilities.

(d) The department shall contract with an independent agency
or organization to implement by January 1, 2010, the quality
assurance instrument described in subdivision (b). The contractor
shall be experienced in all of the following:

(1) Designing valid quality assurance instruments for
developmental service systems.

(2) Tracking outcome-based measures such as health, safety,
well-being, relationships, interactions with people who do not have
a disability, employment, quality of life, integration, choice,
service, and consumer satisfaction.

(3) Developing data systems.

(4) Data analysis and report preparation.

(5) Assessments of the services received by consumers who are
moved from developmental centers to the community, given the
Legislature’s historic recognition of a special obligation to ensure
the well-being of these persons.

begin insert

(6) Issues related to linguistic and cultural competency.

end insert

(e) The department, in consultation with the contractor described
in subdivision (d), shall establish the methodology by which the
quality assurance instrument shall be administered, including, but
not limited to, how often and to whom the quality assurance will
be administered, and the design of a stratified, random sample
among the entire population of consumers served by regional
centers. The contractor shall provide aggregate information for all
regional centers and the state as a whole. At the request of a
consumer or the family member of a consumer, the survey shall
be conducted in the primary language of the consumer or family
member surveyed.

(f) The department shall contract with the state council to collect
data for the quality assurance instrument described in subdivision
(b). If, during the data collection process, the state council identifies
any suspected violation of the legal, civil, or service rights of a
consumer, or if it determines that the health and welfare of a
consumer is at risk, that information shall be provided immediately
to the regional center providing case management services to the
consumer. At the request of the consumer, or family, when
appropriate, a copy of the completed survey shall be provided to
the regional center providing case management services to improve
the consumer’s quality of services through the individual planning
process.

(g) The department, in consultation with stakeholders, shall
annually review the data collected from and the findings of the
quality assurance instrument described in subdivision (b) and
accept recommendations regarding additional or different criteria
for the quality assurance instrument in order to assess the
performance of the state’s developmental services system and
improve services for consumers.

(h) All reports generated pursuant to this section shall be made
publicly available, but shall not contain any personal identifying
information about any person assessed.

(i) All data collected pursuant to subdivision (c) shall be
provided to the state council, but shall contain no personal
identifying information about the persons being surveyed.

(j) Implementation of this section shall be subject to an annual
appropriation of funds in the Budget Act for this purpose.