Special education programs: Family Empowerment Centers on Disability.

Existing law requires the State Department of Education to award grants for the establishment of Family Empowerment Centers on Disability in 32 regions in the state to provide training and services to children and young adults with disabilities and their families. Existing law establishes a minimum base rate of $150,000 for each center awarded a grant and requires a center that receives a grant to complete specified actions related to providing that training and those services. Existing law establishes a Family Empowerment and Disability Council composed of the executive directors of the centers and certain other members, establishes a base amount of $150,000 to be made available annually to the council, and requires the council to, among other actions, develop a uniform tracking and data collection system to be used by each center. This bill would revise and recast the provisions related to Family Empowerment Centers on Disability, including requiring the department to give priority to grant applicants in those of the 32 regions in the state that do not have a center, increasing the minimum base rate for each center awarded a grant from $150,000 to $237,000 commencing with the start of the fiscal year after a center has been established in each of the 32 regions, and, commencing with the 2023–24 fiscal year, providing for an annual cost-of-living adjustment of the grant amount, as specified. The bill would also increase the base amount to be made available annually to the council from $150,000 to $237,000. The bill would impose additional requirements on centers as a condition of receiving a grant and would require the department, among other actions, to, on or before June 30, 2022, develop a data collection template for use by centers and provide guidance to centers on how to define and report data. The bill would make implementation of the bill's provisions contingent upon an appropriation being made in the annual Budget Act or another statute for its purposes.