AB163 - Developmental services.

Amended IN Senate June 26, 2026 CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Bill No. 163 Introduced by Assembly Member Gabriel Committee on Budget (Assembly Members Gabriel (Chair), Addis, Ahrens, Alvarez, Bennett, Bonta, Caloza, Connolly, Fong, Haney, Hart, Jackson, Lee, Ortega, Patel, Petrie-Norris, Quirk-Silva, Ramos, Rogers, Schiavo, Schultz, Sharp-Collins, Solache, Stefani, Ward, and Wilson) January 08, 2025 An act relating to the Budget Act of 2025. to amend Sections 14672.9, 15432, 95007, 95008, 95012, and 95024 of, and to add Chapter 3.1 (commencing with Section 95013) to Title 14 of, the Government Code, to amend Section 10295 of the Public Contract Code, to amend Sections 4435.1, 4435.2, 4519.2, 4519.10, 4519.11, 4572, 4620.5, 4622, 4625.5, 4629, 4636, 4648, 4685.8, 4688.21, 4689.1, 4851, and 4856, 4861, and 4865 of, to amend and repeal Sections 4429, 4430, 4474.1, 4474.12, 4474.15, and 4731 of, to amend, repeal, and add Sections 4474.2, 4519.1, 4620.3, and 4691 of, to add Sections 4418.05, 4519.12, 4621.6, 4689.9, and 4868.6 to, to add Chapter 16 (commencing with Section 4890) to Division 4.5 of, to repeal Section 4892 of, and to repeal and add Section 4625.6 of, the Welfare and Institutions Code, and to repeal Section 53 of Chapter 171 of the Statutes of 2001, to repeal Section 70 of Chapter 758 of the Statutes of 2008, and to repeal Section 19 of Chapter 26 of the Statutes of 2016, relating to developmental services, and making an appropriation therefor, to take effect immediately, bill related to the budget. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 163, as amended, Committee on Budget. Budget Act of 2025. Developmental services. (1) Existing law establishes the State Department of Developmental Services and sets forth its powers and duties, including, but not limited to, the administration of state developmental centers, community facilities, and acute crisis homes to provide care to persons with developmental disabilities, as specified. This bill would authorize the department to make direct care purchases in individual amounts of less than $10,000 commencing with the 2026–27 fiscal year, as specified, for facilities operated by the department, and would require the department to establish and maintain a written policy and procedures manual to guide the implementation of these provisions. The bill would define “direct care purchases” to mean a good or service necessary for an individual’s health, safety, or continuity of care, as specified. (2) Existing law places various requirements on the department to report specified information to the Legislature, including reports on how the department will provide access to crisis services after the closure of a developmental center, the use of the department’s employees in providing services in the community to assist in meeting the goal of successfully transitioning developmental center residents to community living, best practices for regional center administrative management and purchase of services, and the estimated amount of General Fund expenditures used to backfill federal funding as a result of the decertification of intermediate care facility units at the Sonoma Developmental Center. This bill would remove those and other obsolete reporting requirements on the department. (3) Existing law authorizes family home agencies to offer services and supports in family homes or family teaching homes, as defined. Existing law requires the department to promulgate regulations for family home agencies, family teaching homes, and family homes that include standards and requirements related to, among other things, rates of payment for family home agencies and approved family home providers. This bill would authorize the department to establish a distinct service code and rate model for the family teaching home that is separate from the service code and rate model for the family home agency and that considers costs for housing, staffing, and census. If established by the department, the bill would require family home agencies that provide family teaching homes to use the service code and rate model for those family teaching homes. (4) Existing federal law, known as Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, generally provides funding for states for the purpose of operating a comprehensive statewide program of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities, from birth through 2 years of age, and their families. Part B of that federal act generally provides funding to states to provide public education available to children with disabilities from 3 to 5 years of age, inclusive. Existing state law, the California Early Intervention Services Act, provides a statewide system of coordinated, comprehensive, family-centered, multidisciplinary, and interagency programs that are responsible for providing appropriate early intervention services and supports to all eligible infants and toddlers and their families. Existing law requires the State Department of Developmental Services, in collaboration with the State Department of Education, to plan, develop, implement, and monitor the statewide system of early intervention services, as specified. Existing law requires the department to serve as the lead agency responsible for the administration and coordination of the statewide system and makes the department responsible for various duties, as specified. Existing law requires the State Department of Education to be responsible for administering services and programs for infants with solely visual, hearing, and severe orthopedic impairments, as specified. Under existing law, direct services for eligible infants and toddlers and their families are provided by regional centers and local educational agencies. Existing law requires the department and the State Department of Education to require regional centers and local educational agencies to designate a main point of contact for coordinating and completing the transition of child and family from Part C to Part B of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as specified. Existing law authorizes the department, in consultation with the State Department of Education, to allocate funds to support family resource services, including, but not limited to, parent-to-parent support, information dissemination and referral, public awareness, family-professional collaboration activities, and transition assistance for families. This bill would require the State Department of Education to enter into an interagency agreement with the State Department of Developmental Services to facilitate a seamless transition between services in Part C and under Part B of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and to collaborate with the State Department of Developmental Services as they develop and disseminate written directives for transition practices between those parts. The bill would revise and recast related provisions regarding local educational agencies and regional centers. The bill would authorize the department to, among other things, issue directives to local educational agencies and regional centers until regulations are adopted and would require the directives to be issued no later than June 30, 2029, as a condition to receive federal Part C grant funds. The bill would require regional centers to assess toddlers who qualify for early intervention services and are transitioning to or may be eligible for a state preschool program, as specified. (5) Existing law establishes the Department of Rehabilitation (DOR), which provides individuals with disabilities with the tools to, among other things, maximize employment, independence, and economic and social self-sufficiency in the mainstream of society. Existing law designates DOR as the sole state agency with full power to supervise every phase of the administration of the state plan for vocational rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities. Existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, requires the State Department of Developmental Services (the department) to contract with regional centers to provide services and support to individuals with developmental disabilities. Existing law requires a regional center consumer to be referred to a provider of habilitation services if they are determined to be in need of habilitation services, which is defined to mean 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. Existing law authorizes a regional center to vendor a new work activity or supported employment program after determining the capacity of the program to deliver effective services and assessing the ability of the program to comply with the requirements of CARF, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities. Existing law requires a regional center to monitor, evaluate, and audit habilitation services providers for program effectiveness using performance criteria that include, among other things, compliance with applicable CARF standards. This bill would remove the requirement for a work activity program or supported employment program to comply with the requirements of CARF, the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities, and would instead require a regional center to monitor, evaluate, and audit habilitation services providers for program effectiveness using, among other things, service standards established by the department. The bill would also require the department and DOR to develop an interagency agreement, with respect to the delivery of habilitation services and vocational rehabilitation programs, to create an integrated employment services system between DOR and regional centers, with the goals of having each individual experience uninterrupted services, minimized handoffs, and fewer barriers, and increase timely access to employment, as specified. The bill would, beginning December 1, 2026, require the department to semiannually report milestones on the development of the integrated employment services system on the department’s internet website until the integrated employment services system is developed. The bill would also make related technical, nonsubstantive changes. Under existing law, the services and supports to be provided to a regional center consumer are contained in an individual program plan (IPP), developed in accordance with prescribed requirements. Existing law requires the department to establish and implement a statewide Self-Determination Program, as defined, that is available in every regional center catchment area to provide participants and their families, within an individual budget, increased flexibility and choice and greater control over decisions, resources, and needed and desired services and supports to implement their IPP. This bill would authorize individuals and families to voluntarily choose to receive specified services remotely until December 31, 2028, if remotely receiving those services or supports would effectively meet the needs identified through the planning team process. The bill would require providers to document the remote services each individual receives on a monthly basis. The bill would require the department to include specified information regarding remote services in quarterly updates to the Legislature beginning in March 2027, and to report to the Legislature no later than February 1, 2028, survey results regarding specified information about remote services. The bill would authorize the department to implement these provisions by means of written directives or similar instructions. Existing law authorizes a consumer to choose a tailored day service or vouchered community-based training service, in lieu of, or in conjunction with, any other regional center vendored day program, look-alike day program, supported employment program, or work activity program. Existing law prohibits tailored day services from being delivered on the same day as any other regional center vendored day program, look-alike day program, supported employment program, or work activity program, unless certain conditions are met. This bill would authorize tailored day services to be delivered on the same day as supported employment individual placement services. Existing law prescribes the process for allocating specific federal financial participation funds, first by offsetting the costs to the department for the required criminal background check and other administrative costs and then authorizing the remaining funds be used by the department, in consultation with stake holders, to prioritize the use of funds to meet the needs of participants, including costs associated with independent facilitators, development of the participant’s initial individual budget, and regional center operations. Existing law requires the establishment of local and statewide advisory committees to ensure the effective implementation of the program. This bill would restrict the allocation of those federal financial participation funds to offsetting the costs to the department for the required criminal background check and other administrative costs, inclusive of support for the Statewide Self-Determination Advisory Committee. The bill would, commencing July 1, 2026, and ending June 30, 2030, require that up to $1,000,000 of specified reappropriated funds be made available to the department to meet the needs of participants, including costs associated with local community resource fairs and the development and delivery of standardized statewide training. Beginning on July 1, 2030, and subject to an appropriation of at least $1,000,000 for these purposes, the bill would require that those funds be made available to the department for those same activities. (6) The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act authorizes regional centers to contract with agencies or individuals, also known as vendors, to assist consumers in securing their own homes and to provide consumers with the supports needed to live in their own homes, and lists the range of supported living services and supports to include, among other things, assistance in finding, modifying and maintaining a home and recruiting, training, and hiring individuals to provide personal care and other assistance. Existing law requires the contracts to include a provision requiring each regional center to render services in accordance with applicable state laws and regulations. This bill would, notwithstanding any other law, require that hourly workers employed by a regional center vendor providing supported living services, as those terms are defined, be compensated for hours worked in excess of 40 hours [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]