Developmental services: denials of services and notices of actions.

Assembly Member Arambula's Access to Disability Services Transparency Act would establish new reporting requirements for California's regional centers to document and track denials of developmental services. The legislation mandates that regional centers record all service denials, notices of action, and appeals in each consumer's individual program plan while expanding annual reporting to include this previously uncollected data.

The bill requires the State Department of Developmental Services and regional centers to compile and publicly report detailed information about service denials and notices of action, categorized by consumers' age, race, ethnicity, preferred language, and disability type. Starting December 2024, this data must be presented uniformly across all 21 regional centers through a standardized dashboard available in multiple languages. Regional centers must also hold public meetings to discuss the data with stakeholders, with specific provisions for culturally and linguistically appropriate communication.

To address identified disparities, the legislation creates a grant program allowing regional centers and community organizations to implement targeted solutions, such as bilingual staff incentives or cultural competency training. The department must evaluate grant outcomes and post detailed information about funding recipients and project impacts. The bill maintains privacy protections by requiring deidentification of sensitive data in accordance with federal health privacy laws while maximizing transparency in aggregate reporting.

The measure builds upon existing individual program plan requirements by mandating that regional centers document all service-related decisions and communicate with consumers in their preferred language. Centers must provide written notice of appeal rights when disagreements arise and ensure program plans reflect consumers' needs and preferences through a person-centered planning approach.