BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Christine Kehoe, Chair
SB 683 (Correa)
Hearing Date: 01/17/2012 Amended: 01/12/2012
Consultant: Jacqueline Wong-HernandezPolicy Vote: Human Services
6-0
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BILL SUMMARY: SB 683 requires the Secretary of California Health
and Human Services (Secretary) and the Superintendent of Public
Instruction (SPI) to develop an electronic integrated assessment
instrument (EIAI) to coordinate multiple assessments to assess
the needs of children receiving special education and related
services.
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Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 Fund
Develop EIAI Unknown; potentially
tens of millions Federal/Private
Implement EIAI Unknown; substantial ongoing reimbursable
mandate General
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STAFF COMMENTS: This bill meets the criteria for referral to the
Suspense File.
This bill requires that the Secretary and the SPI develop an
EIAI and process for its implementation that serves the
assessment needs of of every agency required to conduct an
assessment of a child receiving (or seeking to receive) special
education and related services. This requirement will require a
substantial initial investment of time and resources to develop
a tool that meets each actor's needs, and will likely result in
additional costs to procure, develop, and implement en
electronic system that can interface with all relevant parties.
In order to develop an integrated assessment or a process to
coordinate multiple assessments, several different state
departments, including the California Department of Education,
SB 683 (Correa)
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the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), and the
Department of Health Care Services, and representatives of
county mental health services would need to come together to
provide an accurate picture of all of the aspects and goals of
each of the assessments. In addition, representatives of the 21
regional centers that contract with DDS to provide assessments
and coordinate services for approximately 240,000 consumers,
county health department representatives that determine CCS
eligibility, and local education agencies (LEAs) would likely
want and need to be part of the assessment development process.
It is not known how many children utilize services provided by
all of these agencies or by a combination of some of these
agencies. In some cases, there could be significant overlap; in
others, none at all. The assessments currently required for each
child would depend on the child's needs, age, and county of
residence. Additionally, each separate assessment has a
different purpose. For example, the assessment for the
development of an individual education plan has the goal of
determining the supports that a child would need to have a free
and appropriate education; the assessment for the development of
an individual program plan by a regional center would be to
determine the supports a child would need to reside in the least
restrictive environment; the assessment conducted by a county
medical director would be to determine a child's eligibility
based on a specified health condition for CCS. The FY 2011-12
DDS Budget Estimate assumes 3,885 children would be served in
its Prevention Program and 28,209 children in the Early Start
program, a program for young children aged birth through 2 years
with disabilities. In 2009, there were 6,309 children aged 0-2
years and 18,034 3-year-olds in special education.
The development of the integrated assessment or process would
likely involve both a public agency and department stakeholder
group as well as input from stakeholders in the community
including families, county mental health providers, and regional
centers. Because the system is further required to be electronic
and to include the capability of having "the comprehensive
assessment findings input and stored in the EIAI for access by
all authorized persons", it is likely to become a complex
information technology project. The cost of its development will
depend on the functionality required, as decided upon by the
Secretary and SPI.
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Information technology (IT) systems can be costly and
time-consuming to develop, and their costs range dramatically,
depending on the system specifications and functions. Two large
ongoing state IT projects include Fi$Cal, intended to be used by
all state agencies and departments for budgeting and accounting,
and courts' case management system, which will allow sharing of
information across superior courts in the state, are each
expected to cost nearly $2 billion to develop and deploy. While
the scope of this EIAI may be intended to be much smaller, it is
not clear from the language of the bill. Moreover, the bill
specifically gives the authority to determine the parameters of
the project to the Secretary and the SPI.
This bill further mandates the the Secretary and SPI require the
use of the EIAI "by all authorized, qualified personnel of the
state and local agencies that provide services, the treating
therapists, physicians, service providers, governmental
employees, nonpublic agencies, and other qualified private
health practitioners and education professionals, when
conducting an assessment."
It is not clear that the Secretary or the SPI has the authority
to require all relevant local agencies and private entities to
use the EIAI. Additionally, to the extent that local agencies
are compelled to use a new electronic assessment tool, such a
requirement will likely constitute a substantial reimbursable
state mandate (on LEAs and counties, at a minimum) for both
initial training and ongoing use. The extent of the cost will be
determined by the assessment tool developed or selected.
This bill creates the Special Children's Electronic Integrated
Assessment Instrument Fund in the State Treasury, to receive
both private donations and federal funds to implement the bill.
It specifies that moneys will only be expended toward this
project when the Director of Finance determines that the fund
contains sufficient moneys to implement the bill.
It is unclear, however, how the Director of Finance will be able
to determine that there is enough money in the new fund to
finance all potential activities related to developing a new IT
system (the parameters of which will be decided by the Secretary
and SPI after convening stakeholders), and to implement it
across state and local agencies, and any relevant private sector
parties. Moreover, the reimbursable mandate incurred by this
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bill (minimally, in the tens of millions each year) in future
years will remain a cost to the General Fund.