BILL NUMBER: SB 577 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY MAY 20, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE JANUARY 6, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 15, 2013
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 9, 2013
INTRODUCED BY Senator Pavley
( Coauthor: Senator
DeSaulnier )
( Coauthors: Assembly Members
Buchanan, Garcia, and Waldron )
FEBRUARY 22, 2013
An act to amend Sections 4850, 4851, 4854, and 4860 of the Welfare
and Institutions Code, relating to developmental disabilities.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 577, as amended, Pavley. Autism and other developmental
disabilities: 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
centers, 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 development and semiannual review of a
plan, as specified, if community-based prevocational
vocational development services ,
as defined, are determined to be a necessary step to
achieve a supported employment outcome. The bill would establish an
hourly rate for community-based prevocational
vocational development services of $40 per hour for a maximum
of 75 hours per calendar quarter for all services identified and
provided in the plan. The bill would limit the community-based
vocational development services that may be provided in conjunction
with other community-based day services to no more than 30 hours of
service a week for up to 2 years, as specified.
The bill would also set forth related legislative findings and
declarations.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
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) Individuals with developmental disabilities have to struggle
to find gainful employment. Unemployment amongst the developmentally
disabled population is approximately 80 percent.
(b) Within the developmentally disabled community, autism is the
fastest growing population, making up approximately 50 percent of the
annual new caseload of regional centers in some parts of the state.
(c) 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.
(d) In order to increase the self-sufficiency of young adults with
autism and other developmental disabilities, 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.
(e) 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 and other developmental disabilities 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.
(f) The passage of the State of California's Employment First
Policy requires the state to increase the opportunities for
individuals with developmental disabilities to achieve integrated
competitive employment.
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 integrated
employment opportunities, habilitation services shall also
provide community-based prevocational
vocational development services to enhance community employment
readiness, develop social skills necessary for successful community
employment, and build a network of community and employment
opportunities 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) "Community-based prevocational
vocational development services" means (1) services provided to
enhance community employment readiness, which may include the use of
discovery and job exploration opportunities, (2) social skill
development services necessary to obtain and maintain community
employment, (3) services to use internship, apprenticeship, and
volunteer opportunities to provide community-based
prevocational vocational development skills
development opportunities, (4) services to access and participate in
postsecondary education or career technical education, and (5)
building a network of community and employment opportunities.
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:
(1) Participation in paid work for a specified period of time.
(2) Obtaining or sustaining a specified productivity rate.
(3) Obtaining or sustaining a specified attendance level.
(4) Demonstration of appropriate behavior for a work setting.
(b) If community-based prevocational
vocational development services are determined to be a
necessary step to achieve a supported employment outcome, a plan
shall be developed and may include, but is not limited to, all of the
following:
(1) An inventory of potential employment interests.
(2) Preferences for types of work environments or situations.
(3) Identification of any training or education needed for the
consumer's desired job.
(4) Opportunities to explore jobs or self-employment as a means to
meet the consumer's desired employment outcome.
(5) Identification of any personal or family networks the consumer
may use to achieve his or her desired employment outcomes.
(c) The habilitation service provider and the regional center
shall review the plan developed pursuant to subdivision (b)
semiannually to document progress towards objectives, additional
barriers, and other changes that impact the consumer's desired
employment outcome.
(d) Community-based vocational development services may be
provided in conjunction with other community-based day services, for
no more than 30 hours of service a week for up to two years.
Community-based vocational development services may be authorized
beyond the initial two years, if the consumer, his or her
habilitation service provider, and the regional center determine and
document at each semiannual review that the consumer is making
significant progress toward the habilitation services objectives for
more than an additional two years.
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 community-based prevocational
vocational development 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 community-based
prevocational vocational development
plan as developed pursuant to subdivision (b)
subdivisions (b) and (c) of Section 4854.
Prior to the implementation of community-based vocational development
services, the department shall secure federal Medicaid funding for
this service.
(f) Notwithstanding paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of Section
4648, the regional center shall pay the supported employment program
rates established by this section.