Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 120

Introduced by Senator De León

May 14, 2014

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 120—Relative to Year of the Community.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SCR 120, as introduced, De León. Year of the Community: developmental disabilities.

This measure would proclaim the year of 2014 as the “Year of the Community,” and would declare that the Legislature will actively promote the rights of persons with developmental disabilities and their full inclusion into community life.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, Forty-five years ago, the State of California enacted
the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, a bold
new direction in public-private partnership that fundamentally
changed and dramatically improved the quality of life for people
with developmental disabilities and their families and that would
become a model for the nation; and

WHEREAS, The vision to enable people with developmental
disabilities to live full, productive, and satisfying lives as active
members of their communities was embodied in a statewide
network of community-based services and supports with regional
centers playing the role of the coordinating hub; and

WHEREAS, California’s first pilot regional centers for
delivering services to persons with developmental disabilities,
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, and San Francisco Aid for
Retarded Children, which opened in 1966, marked the beginning
of the regional center system; and

WHEREAS, By their achievements, the pilot centers proved
the merit of the regional center concept and led to the introduction
of Assembly Bill No. 225 in 1969, which enacted the Lanterman
Mental Retardation Services Act of 1969, which is currently known
as the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act
(hereafter Lanterman Act), and which established the statewide
system of services for persons with developmental disabilities;
and

WHEREAS, The statewide system was designed to be organized
at the regional level and to produce a dynamic network of local
services and supports; and

WHEREAS, The increased availability of services in the
community precipitated the state’s shift from nearly total reliance
on large state institutions to a regional service system in which
more than 99 percent of children and adults with developmental
disabilities receive all of their needed services and supports in the
community; and

WHEREAS, The regional center system was intended to provide
services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities
that are innovative and cost effective, that result in growth and
development, that improve the quality of life, and that support
inclusion into community life; and

WHEREAS, During the decades following the passage of the
Lanterman Act, the service system’s evolution was enabled by
advances in knowledge and technology and by the increasing
recognition of the right of people with disabilities to choice and
full participation in society, including the rights of children to live
at home with their families; and

WHEREAS, The 21 regional centers in California continue to
expand and diversify their services while serving over 265,000
persons with developmental disabilities and their families; and

WHEREAS, The service system has grown increasingly
complex, requirements for service providers have grown in
sophistication, and expectations for services have become more
rigorous due to advances in knowledge and technology; and

WHEREAS, The 45th anniversary of the signing of the
Lanterman Act is an appropriate time to reaffirm our commitment
to the act, and renew our investment in the community system;
now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims the year
of 2014 as the “Year of the Community” and the beginning of a
decade of renewed commitment to both the vision of the Lanterman
Act and the investments needed to ensure a sustainable future for
California’s community service system; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature will actively promote the rights
of people with developmental disabilities and their full inclusion
into community life in California; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of
this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.