Most regional center services come from a menu. The regional center authorizes a service, picks from its list of vendored providers, and pays them. That works for a lot of people. For others, the menu never quite fits their life — the day program runs on the wrong schedule, the respite agency can’t staff evenings, or the thing that would actually help isn’t on the list at all.
California’s Self-Determination Program (SDP) is the other way to do it. You get an individual budget, you choose who provides your supports, and you build a plan around the life you actually want. The program has been open to every eligible regional center client since July 1, 2021, and roughly 8,000 people were participating as of January 2026, according to a DDS presentation summarized by the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Here is what it lets you do — and how your budget is set now that AB 143 has changed the rules.
The Self-Determination Program at a glance
California regional center services, delivered through a budget you direct.
- What it isA voluntary way to receive regional center services. Instead of a fixed list of vendors, you get an individual budget and choose who provides your supports.
- Who can joinAny regional center client with a qualifying developmental disability who does not live in a licensed long-term health care facility. Open statewide since July 1, 2021.
- How the budget startsYour last 12 months of authorized regional center services, plus needed services not yet authorized, minus a few exclusions (AB 143, 2025).
- What you must doComplete the two-part SCDD orientation, choose a Financial Management Services (FMS) provider, and build a spending plan.
- What's optionalAn independent facilitator (paid from your budget) and a separate person-centered plan.
- IHSSIHSS stays IHSS. It is a separate program and is not paid for out of your SDP budget.
Meet an example family
The family below is an example, not a real case.
Mateo and Lucía are a composite we built to show how the program's rules fit together. Every support they buy comes from DDS's published list of allowable SDP services. Your own plan depends on your IPP goals, your budget, and what your regional center certifies.
Mateo is 24 and lives at home with his mom, Lucía. For years his regional center services looked the same: a day program he had outgrown, and respite hours through an agency that rarely had anyone available after 5 p.m. Mateo’s IPP goals were clear — get stronger, make friends outside his program, ride the bus on his own, and find a part-time job. His services just weren’t built around those goals.
After the SDP orientation and a person-centered planning session, Mateo, Lucía, and their IPP team built a spending plan around those goals:
- Community integration supports. Mateo hired his cousin Ana, an adult who is not a legally responsible caregiver, to go with him three afternoons a week: a swim class at the public pool, a painting class at a local studio, and practice riding the bus.
- Employment supports. A job coach helps him explore work and practice interviewing for a part-time job at a garden center.
- A neighbor they trust, paid through their FMS, covers evenings when Lucía works late.
- Training for an unpaid caregiver. The budget pays the registration fee for a training Lucía takes on supporting Mateo’s communication.
- Financial Management Services. Their FMS runs payroll for Ana and the neighbor and sends a monthly budget statement. The regional center pays the FMS fee, outside Mateo’s budget.
Mateo’s IHSS hours didn’t change. IHSS is a separate program, and SDP can’t buy what IHSS already covers. What changed is who shows up, when, and for what — which is exactly what the program is built to do.
Traditional services vs. the Self-Determination Program
| Traditional regional center services | Self-Determination Program | |
|---|---|---|
| Who provides services | Providers vendored by the regional center | Providers you choose. Only your FMS has to be vendored. |
| How money moves | Regional center pays vendors through purchase-of-service authorizations | You hold an individual budget. Your FMS pays providers and sends you a monthly statement. |
| Hiring staff | You pick from agencies on the vendor list | You can hire your own workers, use local businesses, or negotiate your own arrangements |
| What you can buy | Services the regional center purchases under its service codes | Anything in the SDP service list that meets an IPP goal, isn't covered by a generic resource, and qualifies for federal funding |
| Changing course mid-year | New or changed authorization through your IPP team | Move funds between service codes and budget categories with regional center or IPP team approval |
| Your rights | Full Lanterman Act appeal rights | The same appeal rights — nothing is given up |
What the Self-Determination Program lets you do
Choose your own providers
In SDP, only your Financial Management Services provider has to be vendored by a regional center. Everyone else — an individual worker, a local business, a community class — just has to meet any license or certification the service requires and not be on the federal debarment list (W&I Code §4685.8(t)). The statute describes the possibilities directly: you can buy existing services from providers or local businesses, hire your own support workers, or negotiate your own arrangements with community resources.
Control your own budget
Your individual budget is the amount of regional center funding available to carry out your IPP. You decide how to spend it in a spending plan that lists each service, how often you’ll use it, its SDP service code, and its cost. Your FMS sends you and your service coordinator a statement every month showing what was budgeted, what was spent in the last 30 days, and what’s left.
Plans change. Under AB 143, you can move funds between service codes and budget categories at any time during your budget year, with approval from the regional center or your IPP team. Once a change is finalized, DDS requires the regional center to notify your FMS within three business days.
Buy supports that fit your actual life
SDP isn’t a blank check, but it is far wider than the traditional menu. DDS’s guidance gives examples like an exercise class in the park, a swim class at a public pool, and painting at a local art studio — when those activities help you build skills toward an IPP goal. Every purchase has to pass three tests.
- It addresses a goal in your IPP.
- It isn’t available from a generic resource — DDS names Medi-Cal, IHSS, other state departments such as the Department of Rehabilitation, school districts, and private insurance.
- It qualifies for federal funding under California’s approved SDP waiver.
What an SDP budget can pay for
Examples from DDS's published SDP service list and goods-and-services guidance.
Community integration supports
- An exercise class in the park or a swim class at a public pool
- Painting at a local art studio
- Continuing education classes, peer mentoring
- Learning to use public transit
Employment supports
- Job discovery and job development
- Job coaching on or off the worksite
- Self-employment and business planning
- Benefits counseling on how earnings affect SSI and Medi-Cal
Respite, community living supports, housing access
- Respite from workers you hire, by the hour or overnight
- Support with daily living skills, meals, money management
- Help finding housing and keeping a tenancy
Technology, adaptations
- Tablets, laptops, cell phones and apps, plus training
- Home adaptations such as ramps and grab bars
- Vehicle adaptations such as lifts and hand controls (not the vehicle itself)
Training for unpaid caregivers
- Registration fees for training related to needs in the IPP
- Counseling aimed at helping an unpaid caregiver meet the participant's needs
Each item must tie to a goal in your IPP, can't be available from a generic resource like IHSS, Medi-Cal, a school district, or private insurance, and must qualify for federal funding. Your regional center certifies all three.
What an SDP budget can't buy — and what's paid outside it
Not allowed under DDS guidance:
- Room and board — rent, groceries, meals, hotel stays
- Buying or leasing a vehicle, or routine car maintenance like tires and oil changes
- Home repairs or remodels unrelated to the disability
- Pure entertainment, such as amusement park or concert tickets, and hobby supplies, TV, or cable
- Anything a generic resource covers — including IHSS, Medi-Cal, school districts, and private insurance
Paid by the regional center outside your budget (it doesn't shrink your spending plan): insurance copays, deductibles, and coinsurance; your FMS provider's cost; SSI/SSP restoration; Competitive Integrated Employment incentives; Paid Internship Program wages; Coordinated Family Supports; and rental assistance under W&I Code §4689(i).
Hire people you know and trust
Many families join SDP because they want to hire someone who already knows the person they support. That’s allowed, with one important limit. DDS says a legally responsible person can’t be paid for services they would normally be responsible for. That generally means parents of a minor child and a spouse. A parent of an adult is not legally responsible — so DDS says a parent who is an adult’s conservator, or who holds a power of attorney, can be paid to provide SDP services they’re qualified to provide. Siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles, neighbors, and friends aren’t legally responsible caregivers either.
Workers you hire who provide direct personal care need a state background check before they start. You can also ask for a background check on anyone you hire. Your FMS helps arrange it, and the worker or their agency pays the fingerprinting cost.
Background checks: the statute and DDS read slightly differently
The law requires a state background check for non-vendored workers who provide direct personal care to an SDP participant (W&I Code §4685.8(v)). DDS's FAQ, updated May 2025, says this does not include family members who live in the same home and are paid for direct personal care.
That exception comes from DDS guidance, not from the text of the statute. You can still ask for a background check on anyone you hire. The worker or their agency pays the fingerprinting cost.
How your budget is set now: the AB 143 change
AB 143 (Chapter 12, Statutes of 2025), part of the 2025 state budget, changed how a participant’s individual budget is calculated. Before AB 143, the starting point was purchase-of-service expenditures — what the regional center actually paid out. Now it is what was authorized. DDS explained the change to regional centers in a November 25, 2025 directive. For a current regional center client, the math looks like this.
How your starting SDP budget is calculated
W&I Code §4685.8(m)(1)(A), as amended by AB 143 (2025)
Example numbers only. They show how the formula works, not what any family will receive.
- The budget can be adjusted up or down only if your needs, circumstances, or resources change and the regional center certifies it would have spent that money anyway.
- The budget is not increased to pay for an independent facilitator.
- If you had less than $2,000 in authorized services, your IPP team must talk about unmet needs.
- Your IPP team reviews the budget every year using the same method.
- Start with the total of your most recent 12 months of purchase-of-service authorizations.
- Add services your IPP team identified as needed that aren’t yet in a purchase-of-service authorization.
- Subtract services the regional center pays for outside SDP.
- Subtract one-time expenses.
A few rules sit on top of that formula. Your budget can be adjusted up or down only when two things are true: your needs, circumstances, or resources have changed, and the regional center certifies it would have spent that money anyway if you weren’t in SDP. DDS lists examples such as a recent change in living situation, services you no longer need, services that went unused because of illness or a lack of providers, or new eligibility for a generic service. Your budget is never increased to pay for an independent facilitator. If you had less than $2,000 in authorized services over the past 12 months, your IPP team must discuss unmet needs. And your IPP team reviews your budget every year using the same method.
People who are new to the regional center, or who don’t have 12 months of services in their IPP, get a budget built a different way: the IPP team identifies needed services and the regional center prices them at its average cost, adjusted for any unique need.
Why "authorized" matters — and how to prepare
Under the old rule, budgets were based on what the regional center actually paid out. Under AB 143, the starting point is what was authorized. If you were authorized for respite hours but couldn't find a worker to fill them, those authorized hours are part of the starting number.
The flip side: if your needs were never written into your IPP and authorized, they aren't in the number either. Before you transition:
- Ask for an IPP review if your current services don't match your needs.
- Bring a list of needs that aren't being met, so they can be added as services "identified by the IPP team."
- Be ready to explain any services that went unused. DDS lists services not used because of illness or provider shortages among the situations that can call for an adjustment.
DDS's FAQ page hasn't caught up with AB 143
As of October 2026, the DDS SDP FAQ still says the budget is based on "purchase of service funds used" in the last 12 months. That describes the rule before AB 143. The current statute and DDS's own November 25, 2025 directive (D-2025-Self Determination Program-003) use authorizations.
If someone quotes the old wording at your IPP meeting, bring a copy of the directive. The statute controls.
Who does what
SDP gives you more control, and with it more decisions. You don’t have to make them alone.
Who does what in SDP
You and your family
RequiredLead the planning, choose your providers, sign your spending plan, and manage services within your budget.
Financial Management Services (FMS)
Required — you choosePays your providers, runs payroll and taxes for workers you hire, helps with background checks, and sends a monthly budget statement. The regional center pays the full FMS cost, outside your budget.
Service coordinator
RequiredRuns the IPP process and the budget calculation. Can also do the independent facilitator's job if you don't hire one.
Independent facilitator
OptionalHelps you plan, find providers, and advocate in meetings. Paid from your budget — and your budget is not increased to cover it. Can't also provide your services.
Participant Choice Specialist
At your regional centerStaff funded at each regional center to be the in-house experts on SDP and participant-directed services.
- You and your family lead the planning, choose providers, sign the spending plan, and manage services within your budget.
- Your Financial Management Services (FMS) provider is required, and you choose it. It pays providers, handles payroll and taxes for workers you hire, helps with background checks, and sends monthly statements. Since July 1, 2022, the regional center pays the full FMS cost outside your budget.
- Your service coordinator runs the IPP and budget process, and can do the work of an independent facilitator if you don’t hire one.
- An independent facilitator is optional. They help you plan, find providers, and advocate in meetings, and they can’t also provide your services. Their cost comes out of your budget, which is not increased to cover it.
- Participant Choice Specialists are funded at each regional center to be the in-house experts on SDP.
How to get started
Every regional center runs the transition a little differently for now. These are the steps the law and DDS guidance require everywhere.
Seven steps into the Self-Determination Program
Tell your service coordinator
Say you want to transition to the Self-Determination Program. Ask who your regional center's Participant Choice Specialist is.
Complete the SCDD orientation
Two required two-hour online sessions from the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, offered in several languages including ASL. You get a certificate for each part. If you finished an orientation before April 1, 2026, you don't have to retake it.
Do person-centered planning (optional)
A plan built around what matters to you. DDS says the regional center can help pay for initial person-centered planning when you transition.
Hold your IPP meeting and set the budget
Your IPP team calculates the starting budget and attaches it to your IPP.
Choose your FMS
Interview more than one. DDS keeps a statewide FMS contact list.
Build your spending plan
List each service, how often, its SDP service code, and its cost. The regional center certifies it.
Start services
Your FMS pays providers and sends a monthly statement to you and your service coordinator.
Timelines differ by regional center for now. State law requires DDS to set standardized statewide SDP processes and timelines by March 1, 2027.
- Tell your service coordinator you want to join SDP. Ask who your regional center’s Participant Choice Specialist is.
- Complete the orientation. Since April 1, 2026, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) is the only approved provider. It is two required two-hour online sessions, offered in several languages including ASL, with a certificate for each part. If you finished an orientation before April 1, 2026, you don’t need to retake it. Register at ca.gov/sdp-orientation.
- Do person-centered planning, if you want it. It’s optional. DDS says the regional center can help pay for initial person-centered planning when you transition.
- Hold your IPP meeting. Your IPP team calculates your starting budget and attaches it to your IPP.
- Choose your FMS. Interview more than one. DDS keeps a statewide FMS contact list.
- Build your spending plan. List each service, how often, its SDP service code, and its cost. The regional center certifies it against the three tests above.
- Start services. Your FMS pays providers and sends monthly statements.
State law requires DDS to set standardized statewide processes and timelines for SDP enrollment, budgets, spending plans, FMS, and transition supports by March 1, 2027. Until then, timelines vary by regional center.
Check the current service list before you buy
DDS still points families to an SDP service definitions document dated June 7, 2018. The federal SDP waiver was renewed in September 2026, effective July 1, 2026, and the renewal adds telehealth as an option for some services.
We have not confirmed whether any service definitions changed in the renewal. Before you build a spending plan, ask your regional center for its current list of SDP services and service codes.
What stays the same
- Your rights. SDP participants keep every IPP and appeal right under the Lanterman Act (W&I Code §4685.8(l)).
- IHSS and Medi-Cal. IHSS and Medi-Cal remain separate programs. If you’re eligible for Medi-Cal, the law asks you to apply, with the regional center’s help if needed, and families of minors can consider institutional deeming. People who aren’t eligible for Medi-Cal can still join SDP.
- If you move to another regional center’s area, you can keep SDP, and the rest of your budget moves with you.
SDP is fully voluntary. You can leave any time, and the regional center must write a new IPP and make sure there’s no gap in services. But if you leave voluntarily, you can’t come back for at least 12 months, and your planning team must approve the return.
You can leave any time — but coming back has a waiting period
- You can leave SDP whenever you choose. Your regional center must write a new IPP and make sure there is no gap in services.
- If you leave voluntarily, you can't return for at least 12 months, and your planning team must approve the return.
- If you move to another regional center's area, you can keep SDP. The rest of your budget moves with you.
If you disagree with a decision
If your regional center denies a budget adjustment, won’t certify an item in your spending plan, or makes another decision you disagree with, you have the same appeal rights as anyone receiving regional center services. Watch the deadlines on your notice.
Deadlines to know
- 30 days to file and keep an existing IPP service going while the appeal is decided (W&I Code §4715). This protects services you already have — not a new request.
- 60 days after you are notified to request an informal meeting, mediation, or a fair hearing (W&I Code §4710.5(a)).
Where to get help
You don’t have to figure out SDP alone. These are free places to start.
Where to get help
Free help with SDP questions, budgets, and appeals
Planning your spending plan? Try the free IHSS Connect SDP Spending Plan Builder & Budget Tracker.
- Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA): 1-800-390-7032, TTY 877-669-6023
- DDS Office of the Ombudsperson: 1-877-658-9731, Ombudsperson@dds.ca.gov
- DDS Self-Determination Program: sdp@dds.ca.gov; DDS info line 833-421-0061
- SCDD SDP Orientation: ca.gov/sdp-orientation
- Free and low-cost legal help: org
- Planning your spending plan? Try the free IHSS Connect SDP Spending Plan Builder & Budget Tracker.
Read more
More guides from IHSS Connect
- Self-Determination Program Spending Plan Builder & Budget Tracker
- Financial Management Services (FMS): What It Is and How It Works in the Self-Determination Program
- Regional Centers in California: What They Do and How to Get Help
- What Services Can I Get from a California Regional Center?
- Institutional Deeming Through the Regional Center
- IHSS and Regional Center in 2026: New DDS Data Sharing Explained
Sources
Sources
- Welfare and Institutions Code §4685.8 (California.Public.Law; text updated Jul. 13, 2026, verified Oct. 12, 2026)Program purpose, eligibility, orientation, FMS and independent facilitator rules, budget formula, transfers, background checks, leaving and returning, moving between regional centers, March 1, 2027 standardization deadline.
- AB 143 (2025), Developmental services — bill page and Legislative Counsel's Digest (Digital Democracy)AB 143 moved the individual budget from purchase-of-service expenditures to services authorized.
- DDS Directive D-2025-Self Determination Program-003: Initial Individual Budgets and Spending Plans (Nov. 25, 2025)AB 143 = Chapter 12, Statutes of 2025; four-step budget formula; under-$2,000 unmet-needs discussion; adjustment examples; spending plan certification; transfers; 3-business-day FMS notice.
- DDS — Self-Determination Program Frequently Asked Questions (last modified Apr. 23, 2026)Legally responsible persons; conservator and POA parents; IHSS as a generic resource; costs paid outside the budget; FMS paid by regional center since July 1, 2022; background-check exception for co-resident family; Participant Choice Specialists; help paying for initial person-centered planning; outdated "funds used" budget wording.
- DDS Directive D-2026-Self Determination Program-002: Orientation Update (Mar. 24, 2026)Two required two-hour sessions; SCDD sole provider from April 1, 2026; certificates; earlier completions need not retake.
- DDS plain-language summary of the orientation directive (Mar. 24, 2026)Orientation is online and offered in many languages, including ASL.
- SCDD — SDP Orientation registration pageWhere to register for orientation (link from DDS directive; click-test before publishing).
- DDS — Self-Determination Program Service Definitions (dated June 7, 2018)Community integration, employment, respite, technology, vehicle and home adaptations, unpaid caregiver training, independent facilitator, live-in caregiver limits.
- DDS — "SDP: What can or cannot be paid for and why?" Enclosure B (updated Nov. 21, 2023)Swim class, park exercise class, art studio examples; room and board, vehicle purchase, entertainment exclusions; items funded outside the spending plan.
- DDS — Self-Determination Program: Updated Goods and Services (July 8, 2024)SDP funds limited to CMS-approved goods and services not available from other funding sources such as Medi-Cal, IHSS, and schools.
- CMS approval letter — SDP waiver renewal CA 1166.R02.00 (Sept. 2, 2026), via DHCSRenewal approved, effective July 1, 2026; adds telehealth for select services.
- State Council on Developmental Disabilities — Council Meeting Summary, Jan. 27, 2026About 8,000 people participating in SDP, about 5,000 enrolled in the federal waiver (DDS presentation as summarized by SCDD).
- Welfare and Institutions Code §4710.5 (California.Public.Law)60 days to request an informal meeting, mediation, or fair hearing.
- Welfare and Institutions Code §4715 (California.Public.Law)Existing IPP services continue if an appeal is filed within 30 days.
- DDS — Financial Management Service Contact ListStatewide list of FMS providers.
The Welfare and Institutions Code is the primary authority throughout. Where DDS guidance or a regional center practice differs from the statute, the statute governs.
About this article
IHSS Connect publishes this article for general information and education. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. IHSS Connect is not a law firm and is not affiliated with the California Department of Developmental Services, any regional center, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, or the California Department of Social Services.
Program rules and guidance change. Only your regional center and IPP team can decide your individual budget and certify your spending plan, and they can tell you what applies to you.
If a decision looks wrong, or you want advice about your own situation, talk to someone who can look at your file:
- Office of Clients’ Rights Advocacy (OCRA): 1-800-390-7032, TTY 877-669-6023
- DDS Office of the Ombudsperson: 1-877-658-9731
- Free and low-cost legal help: LawHelpCA.org
Reflects Welfare and Institutions Code §4685.8 as amended by AB 143 (2025) and DDS guidance available as of October 2026. Verified October 2026.
