Developmental services: independent living skills services: rates.

Existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, requires the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Existing law requires regional centers to provide independent living skills services to an adult consumer that provide the consumer with functional skills training that enables the consumer to acquire or maintain skills to live independently or to achieve greater independence while living in the home of another person. Existing law requires the department to promulgate regulations establishing program standards and an equitable process for setting rates of state payment for community-based day programs, which include independent living programs, among other things. This bill would require that independent living skills services have functional skills training components, including, among others, cooking, money management, use of medical and dental services, and community resource awareness, and would prohibit those services from being conducted in a center-based environment. The bill would require the department, on or before April 1, 2024, to revise and implement an equitable and cost-effective ratesetting procedure for state payment for independent living skills services according to specified requirements, including that independent living skills services shall not be categorized as a community-based day program or adult day program and the ratesetting procedure shall reflect the reasonable cost of independent living skills services, as determined using the most up-to-date United States Bureau of Labor Statistics's State Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates for California, as specified.