BILL NUMBER: SB 577 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 9, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Senator Pavley
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act to amend Sections 4850, 4851, 4854, and 4860 of,
to add Section 4868.5 to , and to add and repeal
Section 4870 of, the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to
autism.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 577, as amended, Pavley. Autism services: pilot program:
employment.
The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act authorizes
the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with
regional centers to provide services and support to individuals with
developmental disabilities, including autism. Existing law
governs the habilitation services provided for adult consumers of
regional services, including work activity programs, as described,
and establishes an hourly rate for supported employment services
provided to consumers receiving individualized services.
This bill would require the State Department of Developmental
Services to establish a pilot program for young adults with autism to
help them find pathways to financial independence through work. The
bill would require the pilot program to develop and implement a new
model for providing employment services to autistic individuals and
to create financial incentives for employment service providers, as
specified, among other requirements. The bill would require a
job exploration and discovery plan, as specified, to be developed if
job exploration and discovery services are determined to be a
necessary step to achieve a supported employment outcome. The bill
would establish an hourly rate for job exploration and discovery
services of $40 per hour for a maximum of 75 hours per calendar
quarter for all services identified and provided in the plan.
The
The bill would also establish, only until January 1, 2019, a pilot
program operative in specified regional catchment areas, pursuant to
which the State Department of Developmental Services would be
authorized to allocate moneys for the support of programs provided by
the participating regional catchment areas to promote the employment
of developmentally disabled persons. The bill would require the
State Department of Developmental Services and the Department of
Finance to establish, on or before July 1, 2014, the Employment
Growth Fund for these purposes, as specified. The fund would consist
of moneys appropriated by the Legislature from cost savings resulting
from the reduced amount of support payments made to developmentally
disabled persons who earn wages from gainful employment attained as a
result of their participation in the pilot project, as specified.
The bill would impose specified duties on the State Department of
Developmental Services relating to the pilot program, including
preparing an annual report and designing and implementing an
evaluation of the pilot program, as specified.
The bill would also set forth related legislative
findings and declarations.
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 all of the
following:
(a) One in three adults with autism do not have paid work
experience or a college or technical education seven years after
leaving the K-12 school system.
(b) In order to increase the self-sufficiency of young adults with
autism, including increased earning capacity and reduced government
benefit support, it is important that the state implement a program
to provide individualized skills assessment, social cue training, and
specific support to ensure their academic and employment success.
(c) The Governor and the Legislature must address the growing need
for new models of assessment, career training, and expanding
employment opportunities and support options for young adults with
autism between 18 and 30 years of age. If this population is left
without purposefully designed pathways into employment, these young
adults will remain at high risk of public dependency throughout the
course of their lives.
SEC. 2. Section 4850 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:
4850. (a) The Legislature reaffirms its intent that habilitation
services for adults with developmental disabilities should be planned
and provided as a part of a continuum and that habilitation services
should be available to enable persons with developmental
disabilities to approximate the pattern of everyday living available
to nondisabled people of the same age.
(b) The Legislature further intends that habilitation services
shall be provided to adults with developmental disabilities as
specified in this chapter in order to guarantee the rights stated in
Section 4502.
(c) The Legislature further intends that in order to increase
effectiveness and opportunity to gain meaningful employment
opportunities, habilitation services shall also provide job
exploration and discovery services to enhance and promote jobs
skills, develop social skills necessary for successful employment,
and provide targeted outreach to employers for individuals with
developmental disabilities.
SEC. 3. Section 4851 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:
4851. The definitions contained in this chapter shall govern the
construction of this chapter, with respect to habilitation services
provided through the regional center, and unless the context requires
otherwise, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Habilitation services" means community-based services
purchased or provided for adults with developmental disabilities,
including services provided under the Work Activity Program and the
Supported Employment Program, to prepare and maintain them at their
highest level of vocational functioning, or to prepare them for
referral to vocational rehabilitation services.
(b) "Individual program plan" means the overall plan developed by
a regional center pursuant to Section 4646.
(c) "Individual habilitation service plan" means the service plan
developed by the habilitation service vendor to meet employment goals
in the individual program plan.
(d) "Department" means the State Department of Developmental
Services.
(e) "Work activity program" includes, but is not limited to,
sheltered workshops or work activity centers, or community-based work
activity programs certified pursuant to subdivision (f) or
accredited by CARF, the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission.
(f) "Certification" means certification procedures developed by
the Department of Rehabilitation.
(g) "Work activity program day" means the period of time during
which a Work Activity Program provides services to consumers.
(h) "Full day of service" means, for purposes of billing, a day in
which the consumer attends a minimum of the declared and approved
work activity program day, less 30 minutes, excluding the lunch
period.
(i) "Half day of service" means, for purposes of billing, any day
in which the consumer's attendance does not meet the criteria for
billing for a full day of service as defined in subdivision (g), and
the consumer attends the work activity program not less than two
hours, excluding the lunch period.
(j) "Supported employment program" means a program that meets the
requirements of subdivisions (n) to (s), inclusive.
(k) "Consumer" means any adult who receives services purchased
under this chapter.
(l) "Accreditation" means a determination of compliance with the
set of standards appropriate to the delivery of services by a work
activity program or supported employment program, developed by CARF,
the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission, and applied by the
commission or the department.
(m) "CARF" means CARF the Rehabilitation Accreditation Commission.
(n) "Supported employment" means paid work that is integrated in
the community for individuals with developmental disabilities.
(o) "Integrated work" means the engagement of an employee with a
disability in work in a setting typically found in the community in
which individuals interact 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.
(p) "Supported employment placement" means the employment of an
individual with a developmental disability by an employer in the
community, directly or through contract with a supported employment
program. This includes provision of ongoing support services
necessary for the individual to retain employment.
(q) "Allowable supported employment services" means the services
approved in the individual program plan and specified in the
individual habilitation service plan for the purpose of achieving
supported employment as an outcome, and may include any of the
following:
(1) Job development, to the extent authorized by the regional
center.
(2) Program staff time for conducting job analysis of supported
employment opportunities for a specific consumer.
(3) Program staff time for the direct supervision or training of a
consumer or consumers while they engage in integrated work unless
other arrangements for consumer supervision, including, but not
limited to, employer supervision reimbursed by the supported
employment program, are approved by the regional center.
(4) Community-based training in adaptive functional and social
skills necessary to ensure job adjustment and retention.
(5) Counseling with a consumer's significant other to ensure
support of a consumer in job adjustment.
(6) Advocacy or intervention on behalf of a consumer to resolve
problems affecting the consumer's work adjustment or retention.
(7) Ongoing support services needed to ensure the consumer's
retention of the job.
(r) "Group services" means job coaching in a group supported
employment placement at a job coach-to-consumer ratio of not less
than one-to-three nor more than one-to-eight where services to a
minimum of three consumers are funded by the regional center or the
Department of Rehabilitation. For consumers receiving group services,
ongoing support services shall be limited to job coaching and shall
be provided at the worksite.
(s) "Individualized services" means job coaching and other
supported employment services for regional center-funded consumers in
a supported employment placement at a job coach-to-consumer ratio of
one-to-one, and that decrease over time until stabilization is
achieved. Individualized services may be provided on or off the
jobsite.
(t) "Job exploration and discovery" means (1) services provided to
enhance employment readiness, (2) social skill development services
necessary to obtain and maintain employment and to secure and support
participation in internship and volunteer opportunities, (3)
services to access and participate in postsecondary education or
career technical education, (4) services to develop resume and
interview skills, and (5) services to conduct targeted employer
outreach to secure employment.
SEC. 4. Section 4854 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:
4854. (a) In developing the individual
habilitation service plan pursuant to Section 4853, the habilitation
service provider shall develop specific and measurable objectives to
determine whether the consumer demonstrates ability to reach or
maintain individual employment goals in all of the following areas:
(a)
(1) Participation in paid work for a specified period
of time.
(b)
(2) Obtaining or sustaining a specified productivity
rate.
(c)
(3) Obtaining or sustaining a specified attendance
level.
(d)
(4) Demonstration of appropriate behavior for a work
setting.
(b) If job exploration and discovery services are determined to be
a necessary step to achieve a supported employment outcome, a job
exploration and discovery plan shall be developed.
SEC. 5. Section 4860 of the
Welfare and Institutions Code is amended to read:
4860. (a) (1) The hourly rate for supported employment services
provided to consumers receiving individualized services shall be
thirty dollars and eighty-two cents ($30.82).
(2) Job coach hours spent in travel to consumer worksites may be
reimbursable for individualized services only when the job coach
travels from the vendor's headquarters to the consumer's worksite or
from one consumer's worksite to another, and only when the travel is
one way.
(b) The hourly rate for group services shall be thirty dollars and
eighty-two cents ($30.82), regardless of the number of consumers
served in the group. Consumers in a group shall be scheduled to start
and end work at the same time, unless an exception that takes into
consideration the consumer's compensated work schedule is approved in
advance by the regional center. The department, in consultation with
stakeholders, shall adopt regulations to define the appropriate
grounds for granting these exceptions. When the number of consumers
in a supported employment placement group drops to fewer than the
minimum required in subdivision (r) of Section 4851, the regional
center may terminate funding for the group services in that group,
unless, within 90 days, the program provider adds one or more
regional centers, or Department of Rehabilitation-funded supported
employment consumers to the group.
(c) Job coaching hours for group services shall be allocated on a
prorated basis between a regional center and the Department of
Rehabilitation when regional center and Department of Rehabilitation
consumers are served in the same group.
(d) When Section 4855 applies, fees shall be authorized for the
following:
(1) A three-hundred-sixty-dollar ($360) fee shall be paid to the
program provider upon intake of a consumer into a supported
employment program. No fee shall be paid if that consumer completed a
supported employment intake process with that same supported
employment program within the previous 12 months.
(2) A seven-hundred-twenty-dollar ($720) fee shall be paid upon
placement of a consumer in an integrated job, except that no fee
shall be paid if that consumer is placed with another consumer or
consumers assigned to the same job coach during the same hours of
employment.
(3) A seven-hundred-twenty-dollar ($720) fee shall be paid after a
90-day retention of a consumer in a job, except that no fee shall be
paid if that consumer has been placed with another consumer or
consumers, assigned to the same job coach during the same hours of
employment.
(e) The hourly rate for job exploration and discovery services
shall be forty dollars ($40) per hour for a maximum of 75 hours per
calendar quarter for all services identified and provided in the job
exploration and discovery plan as developed pursuant to subdivision
(b) of Section 4854.
(e)
(f) Notwithstanding paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of
Section 4648, the regional center shall pay the supported employment
program rates established by this section.
SEC. 2. SEC. 6. Section 4868.5 is
added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:
4868.5. (a) The State Department of Developmental Services shall
establish a pilot program for young adults with autism to help them
find pathways to financial independence through work. The program
shall be developed and implemented to assist individuals with autism
to obtain integrated employment outcomes that result in sufficient
wages and benefits in order to decrease, over time, their dependency
on public financial support.
(b) The pilot program described in subdivision (a) shall do all of
the following:
(1) Develop and implement a new model for providing employment
services to autistic individuals or modify an existing model for
providing those services.
(2) Identify existing support services that may be modified or
combined with supplemental services to provide skills assessment,
training, and transition services.
(3) Utilize available federal and state incentive programs.
(4) Create financial incentives for employment service providers
who assist the individuals served by the pilot program to become
successfully employed in jobs that pay wages that equal or exceed the
Social Security Administration's substantial gainful activity level
or result in the individual obtaining employer-based health benefits.
(5) Develop and implement a protocol for collecting and evaluating
data regarding the outcomes of autistic individuals who participate
in the pilot program.
SEC. 7. Section 4870 is added to the
Welfare and Institutions Code , to read:
4870. (a) There is hereby established a pilot program in the
following regional catchment areas: Golden Gate Regional Center, East
Bay Regional Center, Alta California Regional Center, Tri-Counties
Regional Center, and San Diego Regional Center. The pilot program
shall include all of the following:
(1) The State Department of Developmental Services and the
Department of Finance shall establish, on or before July 1, 2014, the
Employment Growth Fund for purposes of the pilot project. The fund
shall consist of moneys appropriated by the Legislature for purposes
of this section from cost savings resulting from the reduced amount
of support payments made to developmentally disabled persons who earn
wages from gainful employment attained as a result of their
participation in the pilot project, as follows:
(A) The sum of two hundred dollars ($200) shall be allocated to
the fund for each consumer of regional center services for each month
that he or she is enrolled in an employer-paid health benefit plan.
(B) The sum of one thousand dollars ($1,000) shall be allocated to
the fund for each consumer of regional center services who earns a
monthly wage that exceeds the substantial gainful activity level, as
established by the federal Social Security Administration, for at
least nine consecutive months. This sum shall be allocated on a
one-time basis for each consumer who meets that criteria.
(C) The total amount allocated pursuant to paragraphs (A) and (B)
shall be deposited into the fund on a quarterly basis.
(2) Each participating regional catchment area shall submit the
following information to the State Department of Developmental
Services:
(A) Information regarding each consumer who receives Medi-Cal
benefits and is subsequently enrolled in an employer-paid health
benefit plan.
(B) Information regarding each consumer who earns a monthly wage
that exceeds the substantial gainful activity level, as established
by the federal Social Security Administration, for at least nine
consecutive months.
(3) On and after July 1, 2015 the State Department of
Developmental Services may allocate funds from the Employment Growth
Fund for the support of programs provided by the participating
regional catchment areas to promote the habilitation of
developmentally disabled persons.
(4) The State Department of Developmental Services shall do all of
the following:
(A) Biannually determine the cost of providing habilitative
services to developmentally disabled persons who receive services
from the participating regional catchment areas and compare that cost
to the statewide average of providing those services.
(B) Prepare an annual report regarding the number of
developmentally disabled persons who receive habilitative services
from the participating regional catchment areas, and estimating the
cost savings to the state resulting as a result of the program, and
submit the report to the Legislature.
(C) Design and implement an evaluation of the pilot program. If
the pilot project results in a 10% or greater average annual increase
in the number of individuals who receive habilitative services
through the pilot project being placed in supported employment, the
department shall submit a recommendation to the Legislature that the
program be expanded statewide.
(b) This section shall become inoperative on July 1, 2018, and, as
of January 1, 2019, is repealed, unless a later enacted statute,
that becomes operative on or before January 1, 2019, deletes or
extends the dates on which it becomes inoperative and is repealed.