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BRIEF SUMMARY OF AB 896 - System UnificationFor those who are not familiar with Assembly Bill 896, which proposes to
close California's institutions for people with developmental disabilities,
more information is available from this Inclusion Daily Express web page:
ASSEMBLY BILL 896
Assemblywoman Dion L. Aroner
BRIEF SUMMARY OF AB 896
This bill adds a new chapter to the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act. It deals mainly with the following six issues in California's system of services for people with developmental disabilities:
1. The developmental services system is divided into very unequal parts: A community-based part serves 170,000 and a state institution part serving 3,800 people. The community part is seriously underfunded. The institutional part is overly expensive, consuming 25% of the total system budget for only 2% of those served--at an average annual cost of $165,000 for each person.
2. The state institutions are old and fail to meet modern health and safety standards. The state faces potential huge liability problems if these old facilities are not remodeled. Estimated cost: $1.5 billion.
3. Workers in state institutions receive good wages and benefits. People doing the same work, with the same kinds of clients, in community programs, generally receive less than half the wages and few if any benefits. As a result, the availability and quality of community programs is jeopardized.
4. There is a severe shortage of affordable housing for people with developmental disabilities who live in the community.
5. California lags far behind most other states in federal financial participation for developmental disabilities. (For example, whereas federal "Medicaid Home and Community-based Services Waiver" funds provide 38% of New York State's total spending on developmental disabilities, California's proportion of this federal support provides only 17% of our expenditures.)
6. Families who wish to care for their children at home do not receive adequate support. As a result, their children are often placed in more expensive and less desirable places.
AB 896 addresses these issues through a strategy of system unification and by using existing resources more creatively, generating new sources of funding, creating new opportunities for workers in the system, and improving service support for people with developmental disabilities and their families.
Highlights of the Bill
§ The funds for each resident of state institutions are used to either pay for continued service in the institution, or for alternatives in the community. (The State Hospital Interagency Fund Transfer--the SHIFT budget is created for this purpose.)
§ Each regional center will have annual goals for planning, developing and purchasing alternative community services for people most likely to be placed in state institutions, and for some who are currently in state facilities. The annual goal, statewide, is to prevent at least 150 new admissions and to create alternatives for at least 400 people now in state facilities.
§ Each regional center will have a CARE account (Community Augmentation and Resource Enhancement). This account includes funds from several sources, including funds freed up when community alternatives cost less than costs in state facilities and surplus, year-end, regional center funds. The CARE account is used for improving services for people living in the community whose needs are the same as those in state facilities.
§ Nobody is moved out of a state facility or deflected from admission to a state institution without the benefit of a person-centered, individual program plan and assurances of excellent community-based services.
§ Funds in the SHIFT and CARE accounts are used to create "models of excellence" for people coming out of state institutions and others with similar needs in the community. These funds can be used to:
§ increase wages of community service workers,
§ contract with state employees to provide services in the community,
§ fund self-determination programs in which families have greater control of decisions and resources,
§ help families care for family members at home, including stipends to family caretakers when needed,
§ help people lease homes or apartments,
§ pay for program start-up costs,
§ enhance existing programs and create new ones,
§ help regional centers to administer added workload.
§ Models of excellence are evaluated, regarding costs and results.
§ The Lanterman Trust Fund is created to keep in the developmental services system, all of the funds, generated from the lease or sale of state institutions. The bill gives people with developmental disabilities the undeniable right to these past investments on their behalf and prevents any entity from taking these resources without paying the fair market price. Lanterman Trust Funds can be used to:
§ provide low interest or deferred interest loans for housing for people with developmental disabilities,
§ create technical centers of excellence to produce adaptive equipment, customized wheelchairs, shoes and other articles needed, statewide, for people with unique needs,
§ give grants for special purposes.
§ The department of developmental services is required to plan for: The orderly downsizing and closure of state institutions, reductions of the high overhead costs in the institutions, assistance to state workers during the transition period, and action to secure matching federal funds for services created as AB 896 is implemented.
§ The Secretary of the Health and Welfare Agency is required to conduct two evaluations: A study of additional ways to unify and streamline a complex system involving numerous state agencies, and a review of the functioning and structure of regional centers.