Californians With Developmental Disabilities Need Better Service Says Commission

By Ria Roebuck Joseph |The Center Square contributor, The Center Square California

April 4, 2023

(The Center Square) - On Monday the Little Hoover Commission released their report on California’s Developmental Disabilities Systems, suggesting more standardization, better oversight and a focus on reducing racial disparities.

The right to services and individualized programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in California was codified in 1973 through the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, when care for individuals with developmental disabilities was expanded beyond Down's Syndrome to include “people with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism and other neurological handicapping conditions.” This care is executed through a network of 21 nonprofit regional centers.

The system has been facing a number of challenges around variations in the availability and quality of services among racial and ethnic groups and among localities across the state alongside infrastructural limitations. These perhaps were exacerbated by periods in the department's history where “cuts imposed on regional centers in the early 1990s were never restored. Regional centers are overwhelmed with unfunded mandates, rising expectations of consumers and their families, and the inability to retain an adequate number of employees.”

Tamar Foster, Deputy Executive Director of the Little Hoover Commission gave the following summary of recommendations for improvement in the report:

1. Increase consistency of service across all centers.

Parents and stakeholders spoke at the report’s release meeting expressing a wide range of reactions. Some were understanding about the challenges of service with limited staff. One person, perhaps in response to board-member Dion Aroner, who said she’d like to see “more standardization,” voiced concern about standardized care for all regional centers as some had fought long battles to get the care for loved ones and didn’t want a well-intentioned proposal to have unintended consequences and disrupt the service consumers had worked very hard to attain, setting them back. The vast majority of speakers, however, spoke of the difficulty of navigating the system to get the help they sought.

“I was moved by the people who had the nerve and the ability to share their story with us,” board-member Gil Garcetti said.

The California Department of Developmental Services has oversight responsibilities for the regional centers. The Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act established the framework for a statewide system of community-based services and supports which, as was mentioned at the meeting, serves 400,000 individuals through this system.

While it was noted that the system had failed many consumers, it was felt that the report should move forward to the legislators and not be delayed by edits to wording.

The Little Hoover Commission is an independent state oversight agency whose mission is to investigate state government operations and policy, and – through reports and legislative proposals – make recommendations to the Governor and Legislature to promote economy, efficiency and improved service in state operations. In addition, the Commission has a statutory obligation to review and make recommendations on all proposed government reorganization plans.

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