BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    Ó




                   Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
                            Senator Kevin de León, Chair


          SB 1093 (Liu) - Developmental services: regional centers:  
          culturally and linguistically competent services.
          
          Amended: April 24, 2014         Policy Vote: Human Services 4-0
          Urgency: No                     Mandate: No
          Hearing Date: May 5, 2014       Consultant: Brendan McCarthy
          
          This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
          
          
          Bill Summary: SB 1093 would require regional centers to develop  
          and implement plans to increase utilization of services by  
          consumers impacted by disparities in service utilization. The  
          bill would specify that independent living skills services are  
          available to adult consumers living with family or elsewhere in  
          the community.  The bill would make a variety of changes to the  
          existing reporting requirements on regional centers and the  
          Department of Developmental Services.

          Fiscal Impact: 
              Potential cost increases in the hundreds of millions per  
              year due to increased utilization of services, to the extent  
              the bill results in regional centers providing additional  
              services to consumers (General Fund and federal funds). 

              According to information provided by the Association of  
              Regional Center Agencies, the average per capita cost for  
              services and supports provided to regional center consumers  
              varies significantly between ethnic groups. The bill  
              requires regional centers to develop and implement plans  
              that will lead to an increase in the utilization of services  
              by consumers impacted by disparities in the provision of  
              services identified under existing reporting requirements on  
              the regional centers. By requiring regional centers to  
              increase the utilization of services by groups of consumers,  
              the bill is likely to significantly increase the utilization  
              of services and the costs to the state for those services.

              Unknown, but likely minor costs to provide additional  
              independent living skills services (General Fund and federal  
              funds). The bill specifically provides that independent  
              living skills services shall be available to adult consumers  








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              who live in the home of a parent, family member, or others.  
              Under current law, such consumers are already eligible for  
              those services. Putting an explicit authorization in statute  
              might increase awareness of, and demand for, such services.  
              However, because those services are already allowed, such an  
              increase in demand may not be large and may be offset by  
              reductions in other services to those consumers.

              Minor administrative costs to the regional centers to  
              collect and report additional data and engage in additional  
              stakeholder outreach (General Fund).

          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  
          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.

          Proposed Law: SB 1093 would require regional centers to develop  
          and implement plans to increase utilization of services by  
          consumers impacted by disparities in service utilization. 

          The bill would specify that independent living skills services  
          are available to adult consumers living with family or elsewhere  
          in the community. 

          The bill would also make a variety of changes to the  
          requirements for regional centers and the Department to collect  
          and report data on the provision of services.









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          Related Legislation: 
              SB 158 (Correa, 2013) would have established a pilot  
              project coordinated by a major university to identify  
              underserved communities in regional center catchment areas  
              and improve Autism identification and services in those  
              communities. That bill was vetoed by the Governor.
              SB 208 (Lara, Statutes of 2013) requires that a request for  
              proposal prepared by DDS or a regional center that relates  
              to consumer services and supports include a section on  
              equity and diversity.
              SB 319 (Price, 2013) would have required DDS to ensure that  
              the regional centers collect, analyze, and report data in a  
              way that allows for comparisons across regional centers, and  
              require regional centers to identify plans to reduce  
              disparities. That bill was held on this committee's Suspense  
              File.
              SB 321 (Price, 2013) would have required DDS to establish  
              performance contract guidelines and measures relating to  
              issues of cultural and linguistic competency. That bill was  
              held on this committee's Suspense File.
              SB 367 (Block, Statutes of 2013) requires regional centers  
              to include issues related to cultural and linguistic  
              competency in governing board training requirements, to post  
              such training on their websites and to annually review the  
              regional center's provision of services in a culturally and  
              linguistically competent way.
              SB 555 (Correa, Statutes of 2013) requires a regional  
              center to communicate and provide written materials in a  
              consumer or family's native language during the IPP and IFSP  
              processes and to require that the native language be  
              documented.
              AB 1232 (V. Manuel Perez, Statutes of 2013) requires the  
              existing DDS quality assurance instrument to assess the  
              provision of services in a linguistically and culturally  
              competent manner and include an outcome-based measure on  
              issues of equity and diversity.

          Staff Comments: In recent years, the state has negotiated a Home  
          and Community-Based Services for the Developmentally Disabled  
          Waiver (the "Waiver") which allows the Department to receive  
          federal matching funds for services provided to some regional  
          center consumers. The purpose of this Waiver is to use state and  
          federal funds to allow consumers to remain in the community,  
          rather than being institutionalized. In some cases, the state  








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          could use such funding to pay for a portion of the costs to  
          provide additional services and supports that would occur under  
          the bill.