Important Notice if you are a Regional Center Client

This was found on EastCCCounty Special Kids Yahoo Group



Very Good News on Lanterman Act Services in California
If Your Services Were Changed Without an IPP Team Meeting, You Are Entitled to a Meeting Now to Ask to Restore Them
Dear Friends,
At the request of The Arc and Assembly Member Wesley Chesbro, the state has agreed to send notices to all regional centers advising them that people with developmental disabilities still have the right to participate in planning their own services.
This a huge step for people whose services were reduced, eliminated, or changed in any way without Individual Program Plan (IPP) of Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) team meetings, and for anyone who faces that disturbing possibility in the future.
Thank you sincerely to the hundreds of you who responded to The Arc's action alerts this year and sent emails supporting our bill to assure that our community keeps the right to IPP/IFSP meetings. It was Assembly Bill 2702, sponsored by The Arc and introduced for us by Assembly Member Chesbro.
With the bill progressing toward possible adoption as the legislative session winds toward adjournment, we and Mr. Chesbro were able to reach an agreement with the Department of Developmental Services. Under the agreement, DDS will work with The Arc, Disability Rights California, and others to develop the regional center notice. With that agreement, the bill is no longer necessary, and we agreed to withdraw it from consideration.
If you are one of the consumers whose services were changed without an IPP/IFSP team meeting in the last year, or if you are the parent or other designated representative or conservator for someone that happened to, you can request a planning team meeting now to more appropriately address your needs.
Remember you can call for a team meeting no matter what the change was. Other legislation that we, Disability Rights California, and Mr. Chesbro sponsored this year even clarifies that everyone is to be told about any change that includes an exceptions process.
As always, if the regional center staff doesn’t agree to hold an IPP/IFSP meeting at your request, or if you and they can't agree on services when the meeting is held, you have a right to appeal to a fair hearing.
Here’s a useful Disability Rights California publication about IPPs and your appeal rights: http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/pubs/503801.pdf.
Please let others know about this victory and how they might take advantage of it, and thank you for your advocacy.
Greg
PS. Our success with AB 2702 and the subsequent agreement to send the notices is an excellent example of how grassroots advocacy throughout the state coordinated with professional advocacy in the Capitol can -- sometimes -- produce results for our community.
I hope you'll choose to remain on The Arc's Action E-List to get action alerts from me and from Annie Acosta at the national Disability Policy Collaborative. The more grassroots advocates like you we can call on, the better our chances to produce results like this. But if you'd rather not stay on the list, you can scroll down to the bottom of this page to remove yourself.
Greg deGiere
Public Policy Director
The Arc of California
1225 Eighth Street, Suite 350
Sacramento, CA 95814
916-552-6619, ext. 16
916-223-7319 (mobile)
916-441-3494 (fax)
www.TheArcCA.org
"Advocacy, respect, and commitment to people with intellectual and all developmental disabilities since 1950"