BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 158 (Correa) - Autism services: demonstration program.
Amended: As introduced Policy Vote: Human Services 5-1
Urgency: No Mandate: No
Hearing Date: April 22, 2013
Consultant: Brendan McCarthy
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 158 would require the Department of
Developmental Services to contract with a University of
California or California State University campus to jointly
develop and administer a demonstration program to provide
improved services to individuals with autism spectrum disorders
through the regional centers.
Fiscal Impact:
Likely one-time costs in the hundreds of thousands for the
Department of Developmental Services and the contracting
campus to develop program criteria, guidelines and best
practices to and negotiate a contract (General Fund).
Likely ongoing program oversight costs in the hundreds of
thousands per year for the Department and the contracting
campus (General Fund).
Potential program oversight costs in the hundreds of
thousands to low millions to participating regional centers,
depending on how many regional centers participate in the
demonstration program (General Fund).
Unknown costs to the regional centers to undertake required
activities such as promoting awareness of autism spectrum
disorders, improving screening, increasing access to
services, and other activities. Because these activities are
broadly defined in the bill, the total cost to undertake
them is unknown. Costs could be in the millions depending on
how the program is developed (General Fund).
Background: The Department of Developmental Services is
responsible for coordinating care and services for about 250,000
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people with developmental disabilities. The vast majority of
these people are served by 21 regional centers, which are
non-profit entities that contract with the state. The regional
centers, in turn, contract with a variety of vendors to provide
direct services to the developmentally disabled.
In April 2012, the Senate Select Committee on Autism and Related
Disorders held an informational hearing to investigate equal
access to regional center services for consumers with autism
spectrum disorders. Following the hearing, a Taskforce on Equity
and Diversity for Regional Center Autism Services was
established to study and make recommendations to ensure that
consumers of regional center services receive appropriate
services, regardless of race, ethnicity, or other socio-economic
factors. Based on the deliberations of the taskforce, staff of
the Select Committee compiled recommendations and findings of
the taskforce into a draft report.
The 2012-13 developmental services trailer bill (AB 1472,
Chapter 25 of 2012) requires the Department and the regional
centers to collect and analyze data on the utilization of
services by consumers with respect to age, race, language
spoken, and disability.
Proposed Law: SB 158 would require the Department of
Developmental Services to contract with a University of
California or California State University campus to jointly
develop and administer a demonstration program to provide
improved services to individuals with autism spectrum disorders
through the regional centers.
The Department would be required to:
Contract with a University of California or California
State University campus to serve as the coordinating center
for the demonstration program,
Define the responsibly of the coordinating center,
Establish criteria and parameters for participation by
regional centers,
Establish criteria and parameters for the designation of
underserved areas,
Establish guidelines, best practices, and technical
assistance for participating regional centers, and
Establish outcome measures to evaluate the demonstration
program.
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Participating regional centers would be required to implement
measures to:
Promote the awareness and reduce the stigma associated with
autism spectrum disorders,
Improve early screening of autism spectrum disorders,
Improve diagnosis and assessment of autism spectrum
disorders, and
Increase access to evidence based treatments for autism
spectrum disorders.
Under the bill, participation by regional centers is voluntary
unless deemed necessary by the Department.
The bill requires that funding for the demonstration program
come from existing resources or non-state funds.
The bill has a January 1, 2019 sunset date.
Related Legislation:
SB 208 (Lara) would require any request for proposal that
is prepared by the Department of Developmental Services or a
regional center to include a section relating to issues of
equity and diversity. That bill will be heard in this
committee.
SB 319 (Price) would require regional centers to collect
and analyze data on consumers race and ethnicity and access
to services. The bill would require regional centers to
develop plans to reduce disparities that are found. That
bill will be heard in this committee.
SB 321 (Price) would require the Department of
Developmental Services to establish contract guidelines and
performance measures relating to cultural and linguistic
competence.
SB 367 (Block) would require regional centers to report
annually on issues relating to possible inequities in the
access to services and efforts made to address inequities.
That bill will be heard in this committee.
SB 555 (Correa) would require communications between a
regional center and a consumer and his/her family to be in
the consumer's native language.
AB 1232 (V. M. Perez) would require an existing Department
of Developmental Services quality assurance tool to assess
the provision of services in a culturally and linguistically
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appropriate manner. That bill is in the Assembly Human
Services Committee.
Staff Comments: The bill requires implementation by
participating regional centers to come from existing resources
or non-state funds. However, it is not likely that the regional
centers would be able to absorb the costs of participating in
the demonstration program within their existing administrative
budgets. As noted above, the costs to carry out demonstration
program activities are not well known at this time, but given
the broad authority granted under the bill, those activities
could involve substantial costs.
Press reports and findings of the Select Committee on Autism and
Related Disorders indicate that there are disparities in the
utilization of services between racial and ethnic groups and
that consumers of some ethnic groups are not accessing services
they are entitled to under the law. To the extent that there are
systematic disparities in the use of services and this bill
improves access to services by consumers, there could be
increased demand for services. The financial impacts of
increased demand are unknown at this time.