If you are an IHSS provider working for two or more recipients, California law caps you at 66 hours of work per week — no matter how many hours your recipients have been authorized to receive. For some households that cap is a scheduling nuisance. For a parent caring for two disabled children, or a live-in provider in a rural county where nobody else is available, it can mean care goes uncovered.
California has two exemptions that raise that ceiling to 90 hours a week. They are narrow, frequently misunderstood, and one of them has been closed to new circumstances since 2016. Here is what they actually do, who can get one, and how to apply.
At a glance
- The cap: 66 hours per week if you work for two or more IHSS recipients.
- The exemption: raises that to 90 hours per week, capped at 360 hours per month combined.
- Exemption 1 is for live-in family providers who met the criteria on or before January 31, 2016. That date is closed.
- Exemption 2 is open now, for extraordinary circumstances — complex needs, rural areas, or a language barrier.
- It adds no hours. It only lets you work more of the hours your recipients were already authorized.
First, the rules the exemption changes
IHSS provider hour limits
| Situation | Weekly limit | Monthly limit |
|---|---|---|
| One provider, one recipient | 70 hrs 45 min | Recipient’s authorized hours |
| One provider, two or more recipients | 66 hrs | Recipients’ authorized hours |
| One provider, two or more recipients, with an approved exemption | 90 hrs | 360 hrs, combined |
Weekly limits are combined across all recipients and include WPCS hours. Paid travel time between recipients is capped separately at 7 hours a week, with or without an exemption.
- 66 hours per week is the maximum for a provider who works for two or more recipients. The 66 hours are combined across everyone you serve, and they include Waiver Personal Care Services (WPCS) hours.
- 70 hours and 45 minutes per week is the maximum most counties apply to a provider who works for only one recipient. (The statute itself says 66; the higher figure reflects the highest monthly authorization in IHSS — 283 hours — divided by four, under the adjusted-hours provision in the law.)
- 7 hours per week is the separate cap on paid travel time between recipients. An exemption does not change it.
- Going over the cap creates a “violation.” Violations accumulate, and state law allows CDSS or a county to terminate a provider who keeps exceeding the limits.
What an approved exemption does — and does not — do
An exemption is permission to work more of the hours your recipients have already been assessed for. It does not add hours to anyone’s authorization.
- It does: let you work up to 90 hours in a workweek, combined across all of your recipients.
- It does not: let you exceed 360 hours per month, combined. That is a hard ceiling.
- It does not: let you exceed any individual recipient’s authorized monthly hours.
- It does not: eliminate the need for a second provider. If your recipients’ combined authorized hours add up to more than 360 a month, someone else still has to work the balance.
Exemption 1
Closed to new circumstances- Who
- Live-in family providers who met all criteria on or before January 31, 2016.
- Must live together?
- Yes — with every recipient served.
- Form
- SOC 2279
- Submit to
- CDSS in Sacramento
- Appeal if denied
- No independent state review exists for Exemption 1.
Exemption 2
Open now- Who
- Providers for two or more recipients with complex needs, in rural areas, or facing a language barrier.
- Must live together?
- Only under Criteria A.
- Form
- SOC 2305
- Submit to
- Your county IHSS office
- Appeal if denied
- Yes — State Administrative Review (ESAR), form SOC 2313.
Exemption 1: Live-In Family Care Providers
Exemption 1 is the one most people hear about and the one most people cannot get, because eligibility is frozen to a date that has already passed.
Who qualifies
You are eligible only if, on or before January 31, 2016, all three of the following were true:
- You provided services to two or more IHSS recipients;
- You lived in the same home as all of the recipients you served; and
- You were related to all of them — biologically, by adoption, or as a foster caregiver, legal guardian, or conservator — as their parent, stepparent, foster or adoptive parent, grandparent, legal guardian, or conservator.
Two details people miss:
- The date is fixed. You cannot become newly eligible for Exemption 1 after January 31, 2016. But if you met the criteria then and simply did not need the exemption at the time, you can still apply later if your recipients’ needs change.
- It is one provider per household. If a household has two providers and two recipients, neither provider qualifies for Exemption 1, even if the family relationships fit.
Worth knowing: CDSS’s public webpage lists a shorter set of qualifying relationships than the statute does. The law (Welfare and Institutions Code § 12300.4(d)(3)(A)) also names foster caregivers, foster and adoptive parents, and conservators. If you fall into one of those categories and are told you do not qualify, the statute is the authority to point to.
How to apply
Applying for Exemption 1
SOC 2279 — IHSS Program Live-In Family Care Provider Overtime Exemption.
Directly to the state, not your county.
744 P Street, MS 9-11-96
Sacramento, CA 95814
Birth certificate, adoption or guardianship court order, marriage certificate for stepparents, or a school registration record showing the relationship.
Lease or rental agreement, mortgage statement, property tax bill, utility bill, California vehicle registration, homeowner’s or renter’s insurance, a car insurance bill less than 60 days old, or a W-2 from the last 12 months.
For scale: as of January 3, 2023 — the most recent count CDSS has published — 1,785 Exemption 1 requests had been approved and 1,213 denied. Roughly four in ten were turned down, so documentation matters.
Exemption 2: Extraordinary Circumstances
Exemption 2 is still open, and it is the route available to providers who did not meet the 2016 cutoff.
Who qualifies
You may qualify if you provide services to two or more IHSS recipients, and every recipient you work for meets at least one of the following circumstances that would put them at serious risk of out-of-home placement if you could not provide the services:
Complex medical or behavioral needs
Care that requires specific attention and cannot be provided by anyone other than the live-in provider without affecting the recipient’s physical tolerance or behavioral temperament.
Provider must live in the homeRural or remote area
The recipient lives outside urbanized areas and urban clusters, available providers are limited, and as a result they cannot hire anyone else.
No live-in requirementLanguage barrier
The recipient cannot hire a provider who speaks their language, and as a result cannot direct their own care.
No live-in requirementEvery recipient you serve must meet at least one criterion, and the circumstance must put them at serious risk of out-of-home placement. They do not all have to meet the same one.
What counties actually look at
State guidance (All-County Letter 18-31) tells counties how to read these terms:
- “Complex” needs means care that requires specific attention and cannot be provided by anyone other than the live-in provider without affecting the recipient’s physical tolerance or behavioral temperament as it relates to a mental health condition — the letter gives autism spectrum disorder, dementia and Alzheimer’s as examples. Counties are told to consider whether the recipient receives paramedical services or care requiring specialized skill, such as bowel and bladder care or repositioning, whether their diagnoses suggest behavioral needs, and whether they receive care from anyone else, such as a day program or a second provider.
- “Rural or remote” means territory outside urbanized areas and urban clusters — that is, outside populations of 50,000 or more and outside clusters of 2,500 to 50,000. Counties are supposed to evaluate how many providers are realistically available and willing to travel, and to document the barriers.
- Language is not automatic. The county has to decide whether the language gap is a barrier that cannot be overcome — for example, whether domestic tasks could be handled with some initial interpretation. The bar is that the recipient cannot direct their own care.
Know this before your county asks
CDSS instructs counties that recipients, with county help if needed, must have explored options for hiring an additional provider. That requirement does not appear in the statute — it comes from All-County Letter 18-31, and Disability Rights California has said some counties wrongly treat it as a duty to exhaust every possible option.
Documented prior attempts count, including attempts made before you applied. A documented history of harm to the recipient when another provider was introduced can satisfy the requirement on its own.
Counties are required to accept and evaluate every Exemption 2 request, even ones that look unlikely to qualify. A county cannot refuse to take your form.
How to apply
Applying for Exemption 2, step by step
-
Get form SOC 2305 from your county
Request for Exemption from Workweek Limits for Extraordinary Circumstances. Either the provider or the recipients, on the provider’s behalf, can submit it.
-
Complete the criteria section for every recipient
Each recipient you serve must meet at least one of Criteria A, B or C.
-
Gather your documentation
Proof of shared residence if you are applying under Criteria A, a record of efforts to find another provider, and letters from health care providers, family or friends describing what happened when a different provider was tried.
-
Submit it to the county IHSS office
Unlike Exemption 1, this form does not go to Sacramento.
-
The county has 30 days to decide
It must mail a written decision to you and to every recipient you serve. A denial has to state the reason and explain how to request a state review.
-
If approved, expect a review at 12 months
The county checks whether the circumstances still exist. If they do, the exemption can be renewed.
One more thing worth knowing: counties are legally required to screen for this. At every assessment and reassessment, a social worker is supposed to evaluate whether a recipient’s circumstances suggest their provider may be eligible, then tell them about the exemption and how to apply. If nobody has ever raised it with you, ask.
If you are approved
You can work up to 90 hours per week and up to 360 hours per month, combined across all your recipients. The county must review the exemption 12 months after approval to confirm the circumstances still exist. If they do, it can be renewed.
If your Exemption 2 is denied
You have an appeal route, and it is separate from the standard IHSS state hearing process. It is called the Exemption 2 State Administrative Review, or ESAR, and CDSS conducts it independently of the county’s decision.
The ESAR clock
Exemption 2 State Administrative Review — conducted by CDSS, independent of your county. This is not the standard IHSS state hearing process.
Overtime violations are suppressed while the review is pending, regardless of the outcome. Confirm the current mailing address printed on the SOC 2313 itself — it has changed at least once.
- File form SOC 2313 and include a copy of the county’s ineligibility letter. It must be postmarked within 45 days of the date on that letter.
- Either the provider or a recipient can request the review.
- CDSS schedules a phone conference and sends notice of it within 10 business days of receiving the request. You can present additional information during the call, and submit more in writing — faxed or postmarked within 10 business days after the conference.
- A written decision is mailed within 20 days of your scheduled conference date, unless you asked for and were granted more time.
- Overtime violations are suppressed while the review is pending, regardless of how it comes out.
Two cautions: Confirm the current mailing address printed on the SOC 2313 itself rather than copying one from older guidance — it has changed at least once. And note that this independent review exists in statute only for Exemption 2. There is no equivalent ESAR route for an Exemption 1 denial.
A note for parent providers
If you have an exemption and your children’s combined authorized hours exceed 360 a month, hiring another provider for the remaining hours does not jeopardize your own parent-provider eligibility. The additional hours can be worked by a non-family member — or by the other parent, if that parent independently meets the parent-provider requirements in state regulation (MPP § 30-763.451): they left full-time work or are prevented from it by the children’s care needs, no other suitable provider is available, and their inability to provide the services could result in inappropriate placement or inadequate care. Once the first parent hits the monthly cap, they are considered unavailable for that reason alone.
Before you file: document checklist
Exemption 1 (SOC 2279)
- Birth certificate, adoption order, guardianship or conservatorship order
- Marriage certificate, if applying as a stepparent
- School registration record showing the relationship
- Lease, mortgage statement or property tax bill
- Utility bill, vehicle registration, insurance policy or W-2 showing shared address
Exemption 2 (SOC 2305)
- Completed criteria section for every recipient you serve
- Proof of shared residence, if applying under Criteria A
- Written record of your and the county’s efforts to find another provider
- Letters from health care providers, family or friends describing what happened when another provider was tried
- Notes on paramedical or specialized care tasks, such as bowel and bladder care or repositioning
Where to get help
- Your county IHSS office or public authority — for the SOC 2305, for help documenting a provider search, and to ask to be screened for an exemption at your next reassessment.
- Disability Rights California, 1-800-776-5746 — for help if you believe an exemption was wrongly denied. They cannot help you get past the 360-hour cap; nobody can.
- IHSS Service Desk, (866) 376-7066 — for timesheet and violation questions.
The exemptions are narrow by design, and neither one is a way to be paid for more care than a recipient was assessed to need. What they do is keep a working arrangement intact when replacing the provider would put someone at real risk. If that describes your household, the request is worth making — and worth appealing if it is denied.
Where to get help
Three places worth calling before you give up on a denial.
- Your county IHSS office For the SOC 2305, help documenting a provider search, and to ask to be screened for an exemption at your next reassessment.
- Disability Rights California 1-800-776-5746 — if you believe an exemption was wrongly denied. They cannot get you past the 360-hour cap; nobody can.
- IHSS Service Desk (866) 376-7066 — for timesheet and violation questions.
Sources
Every figure, form number and deadline in this article traces to one of the following.
- California Welfare and Institutions Code § 12300.4 — workweek limits, exemption criteria, county review timelines and the independent review process.
- CDSS, “In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) Exemptions for Provider Violations” — Exemption 1 and Exemption 2 criteria, forms SOC 2279, SOC 2305 and SOC 2313, mailing address, 45-day ESAR deadline.
- CDSS, “IHSS Program Requirements: Implementation of Overtime, Travel Time and Wait Time” — Exemption 1 approval and denial counts as of January 3, 2023.
- CDSS All-County Letter 18-31 — definitions of complex needs, rural or remote areas and language barriers; the provider-search expectation; the 12-month review.
- CDSS All-County Letter 18-58, via CDSS County Letters and Notices — the Exemption 2 State Administrative Review (ESAR) process.
- Disability Rights California, Publication #5603.01, March 2019 — ESAR mechanics; parent-provider examples; note on counties over-applying the provider-search requirement.
- Los Angeles County DPSS, “Fair Labor Standards Act Exemption Process,” updated March 25, 2026 — the 70-hour-45-minute single-recipient limit; acceptable verification documents; the requirement that all exemption requests be accepted and evaluated.
CDSS is the primary authority throughout. Where county guidance and the statute differ, the statute governs.<
