Developmental services: regional centers.

Existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, requires the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with private nonprofit corporations for the establishment of regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Existing law requires a regional center to include specified information on its internet website for the purpose of promoting transparency and access to public information, including, among other things, regional center annual independent audits and purchase of service policies. Existing law requires the department to establish and maintain a transparency portal on its internet website that allows consumers, families, advocates, and others to access provider and regional center information, and requires posted information on the department's internet website transparency portal to include, among other things, a link to each regional center's internet website information. This bill would, on or before January 1, 2022, require the department, in consultation with stakeholders, to determine the most appropriate open, machine-readable format to be used when disclosing numeric data. The bill would, on or before July 1, 2022, require the department and regional centers to provide numeric data generated by the department or the regional center in that format and would require the department or the regional center to make a good faith effort to provide numeric data that is, or can be, provided by a third party in that format. The bill would also, on or before July 1, 2022, require the department to develop, in consultation with stakeholders, transparency guidelines for the disclosure of information that regional centers are required to post on their internet websites. The bill would require the department to post the finalized transparency guidelines on its internet website. The bill would require each regional center to, on or before July 1, 2022, ensure that all publicly disclosed information made available by the regional center on its internet website is accessible through a public information web page located on its internet website, and that the regional center's internet website conforms to the transparency guidelines.