Bill Text: CA SB1024 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Amended
Bill Title: Developmental services: supported employment.
Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)
Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [SB1024 Detail]
Download: California-2015-SB1024-Amended.html
BILL NUMBER: SB 1024 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN SENATE MARCH 29, 2016
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hancock
(Principal coauthor: Assembly Member Bonta)
FEBRUARY 12, 2016
An act to amend Section 4860 of, and to add Section
4860.5 to, add Sections 4860.1 and 4860.2 to the
Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to developmental services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1024, as amended, Hancock. Developmental services: supported
employment.
Existing law authorizes the State Department of Developmental
Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and
supports to persons with developmental disabilities, in accordance
with the person's individual program plan. As part of the individual
program plan, the regional center may refer an adult consumer to
habilitation services, including work activity programs or supported
employment programs. Existing law establishes an hourly rate
of $30.82 for supported employment services provided to consumers
receiving individualized services and group services, and a $720 fee
to be paid to the program provider upon placement or retention of a
consumer in a job, as specified.
Existing law declares the policy of the state, known as the
Employment First Policy, that opportunities for integrated,
competitive employment be given the highest priority for working age
individuals with developmental disabilities.
This bill would increase to $40 the hourly rate for supported
employment services provided to consumers receiving individualized
services, and would increase this amount by 10% annually. The bill
would also increase to $1,000 the program provider fee upon placement
or retention of a consumer in a competitive, integrated job, as
specified. The bill would also require the department, in
consultation with stakeholders, to develop a community-based rate
model to provide ongoing individual placement employment supports by
June 30, 2018.
This bill would require the department to provide a clear
financial incentive in order to encourage the development of and
support for consumers in individual supported employment in
integrated work settings. The bill would require the incentive to
establish at least a 10% rate differential for individual supported
employment services. The bill would authorize the department to
adjust the rate for individual placement supported employment
services to administer the incentive payment, as specified. The bill
would also require the department to review the need for clarifying
placement fees and bonus payments, as specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. (a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(1) California's Employment First Policy and the federal Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act recognize that competitive,
integrated employment is an essential component for individuals with
intellectual and developmental disabilities to lead productive and
meaningful lives, be a part of their communities, make friends, and
earn money to help improve their economic outcomes and status.
(2) The Developmental Disabilities System Employment Data
Dashboard reports that in 2012, only 12.4 percent of working age
individuals with developmental disabilities reported any income at
all. The State Council on Developmental Disabilities' report to the
Legislature in 2013 indicated that 92 percent of working age regional
center clients reported not having a job in the community.
(3) The key service for helping individuals with developmental
disabilities find, obtain, and maintain competitive, integrated
employment is individual placement supported employment, which
consists of support by a job coach to an individual to help him or
her adapt to the work environment and learn to perform the work.
Since the passage of California's Employment First Policy, the number
of Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities
receiving individual placement supported employment services has
declined by over 500 individuals. There is a clear need to
reestablish and grow this important service based on consumer demand.
(4) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has issued new
rules for home- and community-based services that are intended to
ensure that individuals receive services in settings that are
integrated in and support full access to the greater community,
including opportunities to seek employment and work in competitive
and integrated settings. In order to maintain federal funding for
services, all services must comply with the new rules by March 2019.
(b) In enacting this legislation, act,
it is the intent of the Legislature that both of the following
occur:
(1) Consistent with California's Employment First Policy,
individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities be
provided the opportunity to work in competitive, integrated
employment and participate to the maximum extent possible in the
economic life of their communities. Policy and the
forthcoming federal home- and community-based services rules,
incentivize individualized services to transition individuals with
intellectual and developmental disabilities into competitive,
integrated employment, and protect federal financial participation.
(2) The State Department of Developmental Services propose, by
June 30, 2018, a community-based rate model to replace the current
statewide rate model.
(2) Direct the State Department of Developmental Services to
review the ratesetting methodology for individual placement supported
employment as a priority in the state's rate study that is required
on or before March 1, 2019.
SEC. 2. Section 4860 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code is amended to read:
4860. (a) (1) The hourly rate for supported employment services
provided to consumers receiving individualized services shall be
forty dollars ($40) and shall be increased by 10 percent annually.
(2) Job coach hours spent in travel to consumer worksites may be
reimbursable for individualized services only when the job coach
travels from the vendor's headquarters to the consumer's worksite or
from one consumer's worksite to another, and only when the travel is
one way.
(b) The hourly rate for group services shall be thirty dollars and
eighty-two cents ($30.82), regardless of the number of consumers
served in the group. Consumers in a group shall be scheduled to start
and end work at the same time, unless an exception that takes into
consideration the consumer's compensated work schedule is approved in
advance by the regional center. The department, in consultation with
stakeholders, shall adopt regulations to define the appropriate
grounds for granting these exceptions. When the number of consumers
in a supported employment placement group drops to fewer than the
minimum required in subdivision (r) of Section 4851, the regional
center may terminate funding for the group services in that group,
unless, within 90 days, the program provider adds one or more
regional centers, or Department of Rehabilitation-funded supported
employment consumers to the group.
(c) Job coaching hours for group services shall be allocated on a
prorated basis between a regional center and the Department of
Rehabilitation when regional center and Department of Rehabilitation
consumers are served in the same group.
(d) When Section 4855 applies, fees shall be authorized for the
following:
(1) A three-hundred-sixty-dollar ($360) fee shall be paid to the
program provider upon intake of a consumer into a supported
employment program. No fee shall be paid if that consumer completed a
supported employment intake process with that same supported
employment program within the previous 12 months.
(2) A one-thousand-dollar ($1,000) fee shall be paid upon
placement of a consumer in a competitive, integrated job.
(3) A one-thousand-dollar ($1,000) fee shall be paid after a
90-day retention of a consumer in a competitive, integrated job.
(e) Notwithstanding paragraph (4) of subdivision (a) of Section
4648, the regional center shall pay the supported employment program
rates established by this section.
SEC. 3. Section 4860.5 is added to the Welfare
and Institutions Code, to read:
4860.5. The State Department of Developmental Services, in
consultation with stakeholders, shall develop, on or before June 30,
2018, a community-based rate model to provide ongoing individual
placement employment supports to increase the number of individuals
with intellectual and developmental disabilities competitively
employed in the community.
SEC. 2. Section 4860.1 is added t o the
Welfare and Institutions Code , to read:
4860.1. (a) To the extent funds are appropriated by the annual
Budget Act or by Chapter 3 of the Second Extraordinary Session of the
Statutes of 2016, the department shall provide for a clear financial
incentive in order to encourage the development of and support for
consumers in individual supported employment in integrated work
settings. The incentive shall establish at least a 10 percent rate
differential for individual supported employment services.
(b) The department may adjust the rate for individual placement
supported employment services to administer the incentive payment in
the manner described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section
4860.
(c) The department shall consider a new rate setting methodology
for employment and habilitation services as a priority to ensure
consumers are offered choice and opportunity in community living
under the provisions of the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities
Services Act.
SEC. 3. Section 4860.2 is added to the
Welfare and Institutions Code , to read:
4860.2. The department shall review the need for clarifying
placement fees and bonus payments in the state's employment programs
under the jurisdiction of both the Department of Developmental
Services and the Department of Rehabilitation, consistent with the
federal laws and regulations governing the financing of those
services in both departments and shall report each year, to the
Legislature, in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code,
during the annual budget process regarding the number of people
serviced and information concerning the priority consumers have about
access to employment opportunities. The report shall also present
relevant information regarding wages paid to these consumers,
educational and skill development activities, and the relative
poverty indicators linked to the service population served by the
Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act.
