BILL ANALYSIS �
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de Le�n, 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 23, 2014 Consultant: Brendan McCarthy
SUSPENSE FILE. AS AMENDED.
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 (as approved on May 23, 2014):
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
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
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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.
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
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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
could use such funding to pay for a portion of the costs to
provide additional services and supports that would occur under
the bill.
Committee amendments: delete the requirement that regional
centers develop and implement plans to increase utilization of
services and instead require additional reporting by the
regional centers.