BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de León, Chair


          SB 367 (Block) - Developmental centers: regional centers:  
          cultural and linguistic competency.
          
          Amended: April 1, 2013          Policy Vote: Human Services 6-0
          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 367 would require regional centers to report  
          annually on issues relating to possible inequity in the access  
          to services and efforts made by the regional center to address  
          inequity.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              The regional centers indicate that they will need  
              additional staff to identify barriers to utilization of  
              services and work with outside groups to reduce disparities  
              in service utilization. The regional centers indicate that  
              the total cost to undertake these activities is likely to be  
              about $800,000 per year (General Fund).

              To the extent that there are barriers to the utilization of  
              services and the regional centers are successful in reducing  
              or eliminating such barriers to utilization, there could be  
              increased demand for regional center services. The extent of  
              this impact is unknown.

          Background: The Department of Developmental Services is  
          responsible for coordinating care and services for about 250,000  
          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  








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          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 367 would require regional centers to report  
          annually on issues relating to inequity in the access to  
          services and efforts made by the regional center to address  
          inequity.

          As a condition of a regional center's contract with the  
          Department of Developmental Services, a regional center would be  
          required to report on the regional center's efforts to address  
          issues of inequity in access to services. The report would  
          include: a description of the utilization of services by race  
          and ethnicity of the regional center's consumers, information of  
          barriers to utilization of services, information on steps taken  
          to reduce barriers to utilization, and information on  
          partnerships with community-based providers of services in  
          underserved communities.

          Related Legislation: 
              SB 158 (Correa) would require a demonstration program to  
              provide improved services to individuals with autism  
              spectrum disorders through the regional centers. That bill  
              will be heard in this committee.
              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  








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              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 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  
              appropriate manner. That bill is in the Assembly Human  
              Services Committee.

          Staff Comments: The recently enacted trailer bill requires the  
          collection and analysis of data on the utilization of services  
          with respect to the age, race, and ethnicity of consumers. This  
          bill would impose additional requirements on the regional  
          centers to identify any barriers to access by consumers and take  
          steps to improve access to services.

          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.