Calling All Advocates to Let Policymakers

The Lanterman Act in 2011 and Beyond
The Senate Human Services Committee Chaired by Senator Carol Liu (from the same district Frank Lanterman was from) will be having an Oversight Informational Hearing this coming

Tuesday March 22, 2011 from 1:00 pm to 4:30 pm in the John Burton Hearing Room (4203) in the State Capitol, Sacramento California.

Come and deliver a message to policymakers with your testimony. Your voice and your face will tell policymakers why the Lanterman Act is so important to our community and why so many of us oppose changing it from the current individualized personal approach to the proposed set standardization model.

"Senate Human Services" Webpage
Opening Remarks
Senator Carol Liu, Chair, Senate Human Services Committee, and Other members
The Lanterman Act: Past, Present, Future
Michal Clark, Director, Kern Regional Center
Community Services Consumer - TBD
The Individual Program Plan and Purchase of Service Best Practices
Catherine Blakemore, Executive Director, Disability Rights California
Catherine McCoy, Service Coordinator, San Andreas Regional Center
Rocio Smith, Executive Director, Area Board V
Steve Miller, Executive Director, Tierra del Sol Foundation
Accountability, Transparency and Beyond – Implementation of the 2011 DDS Trailer Bill
Jim Burton, Director, Regional Center of the Easy Bay
Doug Pascover, Executive Director, Arriba Independent Living Services
Nancy Chance, Executive Director, Training Toward Self-Reliance
Audit Updates
Terri Delgadillo, Director, Department of Developmental Services
Elaine Howle, State Auditor, Bureau of State Audits
Carol Fitzbiggons, Director, Inland Regional Center
Vicki Smith, Executive Director, Area Board XII
Public Comment & Concluding Remarks

California budget cuts may devastate the most vulnerable citizens

By Robin Hansen - Special Education Examiner from examiner.com

Disability advocates across California are asking for citizen support in keeping infant early intervention programs as well as services to all people with disabilities. An action alert was issues from the ARC (Association of Retarded Citizens). Our community is facing its most serious threat in many years. Governor Brown's proposed budget cuts would gut the Lanterman Act's promise that people with developmental disabilities will get the services and supports they need to live full lives in the community. …

Read more HERE.

Keep the Lanterman Promise

From Louise Schneiders, Family Support Coordinator, CARE Parent Network

We are sponsoring an event February 15th on the Lanterman Act and the Individual Program Plan (IPP) process. See details on flyer. Please make plans to join us at we learn about the Lanterman Act, how the IPP should work, and how the governor's budget proposal will affect your family. See you there.

Flyer HERE.

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"

Lanterman Act Watch

With the current budget cuts and the likelihood of further deficits in the California budget, many parents of special needs children are overwhelmed just trying to keep up with all the cuts to our children's' services. A new website Keeping the Lanterman Promise (KPLA) is a place where we can easily track what is happening to the Lanterman Act and be part of an effort to restore, defend, and preserve the Lanterman Promise.

2009 Changes to the Lanterman Act

In California, in home and community support for people and families living with disability are determined by the Lanterman Act. Many of these services have become casualties of the California budget crisis. You can view the presentation of the Developmental Disabilities Area Board 10, which lists the cuts to Regional Center services here.

Lanterman Act Erosion

In California, services to children and adults with developmental
disabilities are determined by the Lanterman Act. As a result of the
Lanterman Act, Regional Centers were designed to assist individuals
with disabilities throughout their lives. Case managers get to know
the children when they are young and collaborate with them and their
families throughout their lives, connecting them with the community
services they need. The Lanterman Act states: "The State of California
accepts a responsibility for persons with developmental disabilities and
an obligation to them which it must discharge." As the state's budget has been imploding, legislators and the governor are aiming their axe everywhere, including the Lanterman Act.

In an attempt to keep the State solvent, the Department of
Developmental Services was asked to cut $330 million out of its budget. The Department came up with a list of proposed cuts that, if signed into law
by Governor Schwarzenegger, will affect people with disabilities immediately. The proposed cuts include: restricted access to Early Intervention
services, a cap on respite hours, limits on choice in service providers and
the elimination of social/recreational support. A full summary of the
proposed cuts is available here.

Advocates for the developmentally disabled fear that these cuts will
not only harm individuals with developmental disabilities, but also
undermine the Lanterman Act itself. The Lanterman Act assures that
the needs of individuals with disabilities will be met and that they
will have a say in what happens in their lives.

Now is the time to remind our legislators of the importance of the
Lanterman Act, and that California has a civic and moral
responsibility to uphold its commitment to its citizens with
developmental disabilities. You can contact your legislators here.

Speak Up for Early Start

This follows up on Caroline's post regrading the Governor and the Lanterman Act.
The Lanterman Act is the law that guides Regional Center services in California. The following changes to the Lanterman are being proposed:

-Change the current eligibility requirement for Early Start from 0 - 36 months to 0 - 24 months.
-Mandate that private insurance covers Early Start Services.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, June 10, the Department of Developmental Services is hosting a public hearing via teleconference from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. to get your input regarding Early Start changes only.
To participate in the teleconference, please call the toll free number listed below, and enter the participant code at the prompt.
Toll free teleconference: (866) 222-0917
Participant code: 507301