This chapter gives you information about services and supports for children and adults with developmental disabilities who live at home. We explain how the law supports keeping families together.
This information is mostly taken from a state law called the Lanterman Act, which begins at section 4500 of the California Welfare and Institutions Code. We give you the section of this state law where you can find the information we wrote. You may have to look at the law to get the services you need. When you see the word “Section(s),” followed by a number and no other information, it means section(s) of the Lanterman Act. To read the Lanterman Act, click here.
- (6.1) What does the Lanterman Act say about services that help children live at home with their families?
- (6.2) What must regional centers do to meet the needs of children with developmental disabilities and their families?
- (6.3) How do I ask for new services or change to the services for my child?
- (6.4) How does the Individual Program Plan (IPP) process involve families?
- (6.5) What are Generic Services?
- (6.6) How do In-Home Supportive Services work as a generic resource?
- (6.7) How do natural supports work as a generic resource?
- (6.8) Can regional centers pay for medical or dental services?
- (6.9) If a regional center will pay for services, must it always use the least costly service provider?
- (6.10) Besides the Lanterman Act, do other laws require services for children with disabilities that might help them live at home?
- (6.11) Can parents with developmental disabilities get services from the regional center to help them parent their children?
- (6.12) Will a family’s culture, values, and customs be considered in providing services that help families keep their children with disabilities at home?
- (6.13) What if I do not speak English or English is not my first language?
- (6.14) What if the regional center is not offering all the services our family needs for our child to live at home?
- (6.15) What Family Support Services can regional centers give to help families care for their children at home?
- (6.16) Are there special rules or requirements for certain regional center services?
- (6.17) Can the regional center pay for camp and social recreation services? What about educational services and non-medical therapies?
- (6.18) What does the Department of Developmental Services say about the restoration of camp, social recreation, and related services?
- (6.19): How do regional centers decide who gets services like camp, social recreation, nonmedical therapies, and education?
- (6.20): Do I have to use up or try other resources before the regional center will fund my social recreation program?
- (6.21): How do I ask for social recreation, camp, nonmedical therapies, or educational services from the regional center?
- (6.22): What if the regional center says “No” to my request for social recreation or other related services?
- (6.23) Are respite services available to families to help them keep their children with disabilities at home?
- (6.24) Are facilities that care for children with developmental disabilities or foster family homes able to get respite care hours?
- (6.25) How does a regional center decide how much respite service is needed?
- (6.26) What if we need more respite hours than what the regional thinks our family needs?
- (6.27) What if the regional center and I cannot agree on the amount of respite services our family needs?
- (6.28) How do I choose a respite care worker?
- (6.29) How does a family member become a Family Member Vendor of the regional center for respite services?
- (6.30) Can respite providers be trained to address special medical needs of a person with a disability during respite service hours?
- (6.31) How do respite services work together with In-Home Supportive Services provided by the county?
- (6.32) Can regional centers ask families to trade respite services for other regional center services that also give families a break from the responsibility of care?
- (6.33) Are respite and daycare the same service?
- (6.34) Can a regional center or another agency help pay for the costs of daycare for a child with a developmental disability?
- (6.35) Must day care providers make reasonable modifications to provide care for children with developmental disabilities?
- (6.36) How does my child’s special education program and the regional center work together?
- (6.37) Is the regional center involved in the transition of special education students from school to post-school life?
- (6.38) Can regional centers provide emergency or crisis intervention services?
- (6.39) Can regional centers provide nursing care?
- (6.40) How do the Adoption Assistance Program (AAP) and the regional center serve children with developmental disabilities?
- (6.41) Do parents have to pay fees for some regional center services?
- (6.42) Can my child join the Self-Determination Program?