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On February 9, the California Assembly Budget Sub-1 Committee, Chaired by Assemblyman Joaquin Arambula (D- Fresno), held a marathon hearing lasting nearly eight hours and discussing several critical issues for California’s intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) community. The agenda covered several topics, including new budget investments to increase support for young children in Early Start, consumers who are deaf, and reducing racial disparities in service delivery, and employment pilot programs for individuals who will be impacted by the ending of sub-minimum wage payments in California.
The hearing also included a lengthy discussion on the $2.1 billion investment passed in last year’s budget to implement the 2019 rate models published in the Department of Developmental Services’ Rate Study.
Jordan Lindsey, Executive Director of The Arc & UCP California Collaboration, was invited to provide testimony on the current state of the IDD community as well as the impacts of the State’s Rate Study, conducted pre-pandemic, and how its implementation will affect services and supports. His testimony included details on the impacts of the workforce shortage on people with IDD and their families, and a request for the Legislature to accelerate the budget investments so that more direct support professionals could be hired and retained to provide services. Dr. Arambula, who has been a consistent and strong supporter of the IDD community as Chair of the Budget Sub-Committee, acknowledged the challenges currently in the community and asked the Department of Developmental Services to provide a cost estimate to accelerate the rate study implementation by one year.
The testimony provided by The Arc & UCP can be viewed below and the written testimony can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/LFSq3OttHiY