BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 1232
Page 1
CONCURRENCE IN SENATE AMENDMENTS
AB 1232 (V. Manuel Pérez)
As Amended August 22, 2013
Majority vote
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|ASSEMBLY: |73-0 |(May 9, 2013) |SENATE: |37-0 |(September 3, |
| | | | | |2013) |
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Original Committee Reference: HUM. S.
SUMMARY : Includes linguistic and cultural competency among the
outcomes measured with the State Department of Developmental
Services (DDS) quality assurance instrument. Specifically, this
bill :
1)Declares the legislative finding that although existing law
requires DDS to establish a quality assessment system to
provide evaluation and oversight for regional center services,
the current quality assessment system does not require
evaluation or oversight to ensure that regional center
services are provided in a linguistically and culturally
competent manner.
2)Changes the scope of the existing quality assurance instrument
identified by DDS, which includes an assessment of the
provision of services, to include an assessment of whether
services are provided in a linguistically and culturally
competent manner.
3)Requires that the quality assurance instrument include
outcome-based measures to evaluate the linguistic and cultural
competency of regional center services provided to consumers
across their lifetime.
4)Requires the independent agency or organization that DDS
contracts with for implementation of the quality assurance
assessment to have experience with issues related to
linguistic and cultural competency.
The Senate amendments
1)Delete and replace the legislative findings and declarations
in the bill to more directly address the lack of evaluation or
AB 1232
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oversight on issues of equity and diversity in the State
Department of Developmental Services quality assessment
system.
2)Delete the requirement for the quality assurance instrument to
include an outcome-based measure on issues of equity and
diversity.
FISCAL EFFECT : This bill passed out of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, pursuant to Senate Rule 28.8.
COMMENTS : The Senate Select Committee on Autism and Related
Disorders held an informational hearing on April 30, 2012, to
discuss questions surrounding equal access to regional center
services for consumers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). An
outcome of the hearing was a creation of a 20-member Taskforce
on Equity and Diversity for Regional Center Autism Services,
which was charged with developing recommendations to ensure that
consumers of regional center services receive appropriate and
timely supports regardless of race, ethnicity, educational
background and other socio-economic factors. The report, "A
Preliminary Report by the Taskforce on Equity and Diversity for
Regional Center Autism Services," was published on March 18,
2013, and identified a number of recommendations for changes to
current practice within the Developmental Services system based
on the work of five subcommittees. Among them were
recommendations to include issues of equity and diversity within
the quality assurance instrument, in addition to using the
instrument to measure consumers across their lifetime, not just
as adults. Both of these recommendations are reflected in this
legislation.
According to the author, this bill "simply stipulates that
future contracts by DDS for the quality assessment of regional
center services, already mandated by current law, must also
include outcome measures related to cultural and linguistic
competency." Current statute regarding the quality assessments
system allows the State Council on Developmental Disabilities
(SCDD) to expand the quality assessment instrument to collect
additional data. While the author's attempt to require cultural
and linguistic competency to be measured with respect to
regional center service delivery is not an effort put forth by
the SCDD under their statutory authority, SCDD supports the
bill's goals.
AB 1232
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Background : The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services
Act (Lanterman Act) (Welfare and Institutions Code (WIC) 4500 et
seq.) guides the provision of services and supports for
Californians with developmental disabilities. Each individual
under the Lanterman Act, typically referred to as a "consumer,"
is legally entitled to treatment and habilitation services and
supports in the least restrictive environment. Lanterman Act
services are designed to enable all consumers to live more
independent and productive lives in the community.
Direct responsibility for implementation of the Lanterman Act
service system is shared by the DDS and 21 regional centers,
which are private nonprofit entities, established pursuant to
the Lanterman Act, that contract with DDS to carry out many of
the state's responsibilities under the Act. The principal roles
of regional centers include intake and assessment,
individualized program plan development, case management, and
securing services through generic agencies or purchasing
services provided by vendors. Regional centers also share
primary responsibility with local education agencies for
provision of early intervention services under the California
Early Intervention Services Act (e.g., Early Start Program).
The regional center caseload includes roughly 260,000 consumers
who receive services such as residential placements, supported
living services, respite care, transportation, day treatment
programs, work support programs, and various social and
therapeutic programs. Approximately 1,400 consumers reside at
one of California's four Developmental Centers-and one
state-operated, specialized community facility-that provide
24-hour habilitation and medical and social treatment services.
July 2013 consumer characteristic data from the DDS shows that
37% of the individuals served by the regional centers are
identified as White, whereas 35% are identified as Hispanic just
over 6% identify as Asian, 2.4% identify as Filipino, and nearly
10% identify as Black or African American.
Quality Assessment Services project : AB 9 X4 (Evans), Chapter
9, Statutes of 2009-10, Fourth Extraordinary Session, was a
Budget Act DDS trailer bill and the vehicle that was used to
consolidate two data collection efforts. The Evaluation of
People with Developmental Disabilities Moving from Developmental
Centers into the Community, and the Life Quality Assessments
were consolidated into the Quality Assessment Services project,
for which DDS uses a nationally validated instrument that allows
for the collection of statewide and regional center data needed
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to assess consumer satisfaction and success. DDS established
membership with the National Core Indicators (NCI) program, of
which 33 other states' developmental services systems are
members. Using the NCI survey instruments, DDS collects data on
consumer satisfaction, provision of services, and personal
outcomes, which provide the Department with the information it
needs to evaluate the quality of the DDS service delivery
system. SCDD uses the NCI instrument to collect the data for
this project, similar to SCDD's involvement in collecting data
for the Life Quality Assessments that were conducted prior to
development of the new quality assessment system. The data that
the SCDD gathers, including information about consumers'
employment status, perceptions of their own safety, and
interactions with their regional centers, for example, give the
state the opportunity learn a great deal about the quality of
services and the impacts they have on consumers' quality of life
within the DDS system.
Analysis Prepared by : Myesha Jackson / HUM. S. / (916)
319-2089
FN:
0002295