PD Editorial: California is failing developmentally disabled residents

A blistering report from the state auditor underscores that the Department of Developmental Services fails to adequately serve 380,000 Californians with developmental or intellectual disabilities.

Those Californians are supposed to receive services through nonprofits that operate regional centers. Regional centers assess prospective clients, determine eligibility for services and offer case management, including working with service providers.

DDS is supposed to oversee and fund those centers, but the new audit reports that it is doing neither well. Because of inadequate funding, none of California’s 21 regional centers meets caseload ratios established in state law. Doing so would require hiring 1,100 more service coordinators, according to department data from early this year.

The state auditors examined three centers: the North Bay Regional Center in Napa, Alta California Regional Center in Sacramento and North Los Angeles County Regional Center in Chatsworth. The North Bay facility serves Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties.

Along with overly high caseloads due to insufficient staff, the audit found that DDS failed to monitor service providers with whom centers contracted. For example, North Bay was unaware that it was required to check providers’ licenses as part of its periodic qualification reviews.

The department also did not ensure that the centers promptly resolved clients’ complaints. North Bay even sometimes did not provide required information to clients regarding their right to file complaints. Clients and their families might have sensed they weren’t getting the level of service to which they were entitled, but no one told them what to do about it.

DDS conceded that there were issues. “Although DDS has been aware of many of these issues, it has not always taken timely and adequate actions to address them. As a result, it cannot be certain that regional centers are effectively serving Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” wrote Michael Tilden, the acting California state auditor.

In fact, the department knew about one problem from a 2016 audit, but did nothing, despite promising action, until another audit loomed. Then it sent a one-sentence reminder to centers that they need to conduct quality reviews of service providers.

“Such a minimal action fails to address the underlying issue that our previous audit identified — that regional centers were aware of the requirement but that they had not adequately been performing the reviews,” the auditors wrote. “Further, when we asked why sending a one sentence reminder required more than five years to accomplish, DDS neither explained why it took so long nor why it had not ensured that regional centers were complying with this requirement in the meantime.”

These issues resonate in Sonoma County. In 2018, the state closed the longtime Sonoma Developmental Center, which had its own deficiencies. The well-meaning promise was that clients could be better cared for in the community with the coordination of regional centers.

That promise remains unkept in the face of disgraceful inaction by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the Legislature and the state Department of Developmental Services.

Instead of contesting some audit findings, fix things. Instead of rationalizing incremental progress, move quickly. Californians in need and their families deserve better.

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.