Assembly BillPassed first houseWelfare and Institutions
AB 1208: California Developmental Disability Services Quality, Performance, and Outcomes Act of 2025.
What AB 1208 does, verified December 7, 2025
The state department of developmental services must review and map all quality, performance, and outcome measures used within the California developmental services system by July 1, 2026. The department will then develop a uniform set of quality, performance, and outcomes measures, along with a tracking mechanism, to measure consistency, equity, and accountability in promoting the choice, autonomy, and life quality of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. This tracking mechanism will include performance indicators and benchmarks for regional centers. The department must submit a related report to the legislature by January 1, 2028.
Bill journey
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5GovernorPending
6ChapteredPending
Last action: In committee: Held under submission. (2025-06-02)Alert me
Author and sponsors
Full contact details, staff, and committees with Connect, $16/moUnlockRecent actions21 total · showing 5
| Aug. 29, 2025 | In committee: Held under submission. |
| Jul. 14, 2025 | In committee: Referred to APPR. suspense file. |
| Jul. 01, 2025 | From committee: Do pass and re-refer to Com. on APPR. (Ayes 5. Noes 0.) (June 30). Re-referred to Com. on APPR. |
| Jun. 24, 2025 | From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on HUMAN S. |
| Jun. 11, 2025 | Referred to Com. on HUMAN S. |
Latest bill textAmended version, June 24, 2025 · 1,771 words
| Amended IN Senate June 24, 2025 |
| Amended IN Assembly May 01, 2025 |
| Amended IN Assembly March 24, 2025 |
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION
Assembly Bill
No. 1208
| Introduced by Assembly Member Addis |
February 21, 2025 |
An act to add Section 4573 to the Welfare and Institutions Code, relating to developmental services.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 1208, as amended, Addis. California Developmental Disability Services Quality, Performance, and Outcomes Act of 2025.
Existing law, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, requires the State Department of Developmental Services to contract with regional centers to provide services and supports to individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. Existing law requires the department, in collaboration with stakeholders, to identify a valid and reliable quality assurance instrument that assesses consumer and family satisfaction, provision of services in a linguistically and competent manner, and personal outcomes, as specified.
This bill would require the department, no later than July 1, 2026, to review, assess, and map all established and currently pending regional center and vendored service provider quality, performance, and outcome measures and surveys that are used within the California developmental services system, as specified. The bill would also require the department, on or before January 1, 2027, to consult with stakeholders and appropriate subject matter experts via a workgroup to develop a uniform set of quality, performance, and outcomes measures and measures, a tracking mechanism to measure, compare, and track over time, time the consistency, equity, and accountability in promoting the choice, autonomy, and life quality of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. families, and performance indicators and benchmarks for regional centers, as specified. The bill would require the department to submit a related report to the Legislature no later than January 1, 2028.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
SECTION 1.
This act shall be known, and may be cited, as the California Developmental Disability Services Quality, Performance, and Outcomes Act of 2025.SEC. 2.
(a) The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(1) The Lanterman Developmental Services Act was passed more than fifty years ago to assist individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to live full, productive lives by providing an array of services to meet the needs and choices of each person with developmental disabilities, regardless of age or degree of disability, and at each stage of life, and to support their integration into the mainstream life of the community. Implementation of the act is overseen by the State Department of Developmental Services, which contracts with 21 nonprofit regional centers to coordinate the delivery of home- and community-based services to Californians with developmental disabilities and their families. Each regional center serves a different area of the state and oversees the delivery of services within its catchment area.
(2) Historically, the developmental services system has almost solely focused on quantifying the number of resources expended and levels of regulatory compliance. The federal and state developmental services systems are moving away from compliance-based measures, and toward outcomes-based measures, for determining whether systems are meeting individualized needs based on person-centered planning and self-determination. In California, progress toward this goal has been impeded by three fundamental barriers. Although well intentioned, previous efforts have resulted in a patchwork of measures that are still primarily compliance-based, and lack consistency, uniformity, and transparency, and they do not serve to guide outcomes for individuals served by the system and promote self-determination throughout consumers’ life spans.
(3) The department’s information technical infrastructure is over 40 years old. The lack of a statewide system for the collection, compilation, interlinking, and storage of data on individuals served by the department has impeded progress toward an outcomes-based system.
(4) A previous effort to develop an IDD program technology system failed. As a result, the department and regional centers maintain a patchwork that is incomplete and error prone, are not outcomes-based because they do not measure whether systems are meeting individualized needs based on person-centered planning and self-determination, cannot be easily interlinked, and rely on archaic technology. Moreover, the data collected in these systems is not accessible to researchers in a format that can support social scientific investigation into root causes, or rigorous program evaluation, while protecting individual privacy.
(5) The transformational federal and statewide movement toward a person-centered developmental services system could have life-changing impacts on the inclusion, self-determination, well-being, civil rights, and human rights of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, the lack of consistent performance and outcome measures has slowed the developmental services system’s progress toward these goals.
(6) California is already moving to outcomes-based performance measurement in other human services areas, such as child welfare and foster care, employment, health, behavioral health, housing, and homelessness.
(7) A robust and comprehensive data infrastructure is needed to meet and monitor California’s requirements of the final home- and community-based settings and access rules and support the implementation of future and current initiatives for improving the outcomes and quality of services for those receiving services in California’s developmental services system. The department has started the development of a new information technology (IT) system, the Life Outcome Improvement System, but unless the business requirements for quality, performance and outcomes are developed prior to or contemporaneous with the project, the system would do little to promote a person-centered service delivery system in the state.
(8) In the Governor’s January 2024 budget proposal, the California Health and Human Services Agency announced a statewide Master Plan for Developmental Services in California, which is currently underway. The master plan’s recommendations include developing more comprehensive and consistent measures of individual and systemwide outcomes and performance and enhancing data and technology systems. These are critical components for advancing the overall master plan’s priorities and should be started expeditiously.
(b) Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to ensure consistency throughout the developmental services system and improve the equitable delivery of services by ensuring that the system has a clear set of readily quantifiable measures with which quality, performance, and outcomes shall be measured, compared, and tracked over time, at the individual, service provider, regional center, department, and systemwide levels. These quality, performance, and outcomes measures will help ensure the system’s equity, consistency, and accountability in promoting the choice, autonomy, and life quality of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families. It is the further intent of the Legislature that any IT systems that are being developed for use in the developmental services system, or may be developed in the future, will incorporate measures for the systematic collection of the quality, performance, and outcomes measures adopted pursuant to this act.
SEC. 3.
Section 4573 is added to the Welfare and Institutions Code, to read:4573.
(a) The department shall review, assess, and map all established and currently pending regional center and vendored service provider quality, performance, and outcome measures and surveys that are used or are being developed for the purpose of quality, performance, and outcome measurements within the California developmental services system. The measures subject to review shall include, but not be limited to, existing department processes and tools for monitoring and auditing regional centers, the performance objectives under the regional center contracts described in Section 4629, the performance improvement indicators and benchmarks to incentivize high-quality regional center operations described in Section 4620.5, the quality assessment instrument described in Section 4571, the quality incentive program for vendored service providers described in Section 4519.10, the principles of individual choice and self-determination and performance thresholds described in Section 4685.8, the National Core Indicators domain surveys, and any other existing quality, performance, and outcome measures currently used by the department, regional centers and vendored providers to evaluate any component of program quality, performance, and outcomes. The department’s review, assessment, and mapping shall be completed no later than July 1, 2026.(b) Notwithstanding any other law, on or before January 1, 2027, the department shall consult with stakeholders and appropriate subject matter experts, including academic social scientists with training in program evaluation, causal inference and data science, via a working group, to develop both all of the following:
(1) A uniform set of quality, performance, and outcomes measures that will permit performance to be measured and outcomes to be tracked at the individual, regional center, vendor, and systemwide levels.
(2) A tracking mechanism to measure, compare, and track over time, at the individual, regional center, and systemwide level, the consistency, equity, and accountability in promoting the choice, autonomy, and life quality of persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families.
(3) Performance indicators and benchmarks for regional centers for defining high quality of service and related incentives, as described in subdivision (c) of Section 4620.5, and for defining basic performance below which placement on probation and corrective action may be required pursuant to subdivision (d) of Section 4629. If a regional center is placed on probation after failing to meet basic performance levels on one or more minimum performance indicators and benchmarks, the department shall require corrective action to be taken by the regional center. The department shall provide the regional center access to technical assistance, ensure the participation of the regional center governing board, as specified in subdivision (f) of Section 4629, consider the sharing of resources between regional centers, and provide notices of probation to the entities specified in paragraph (2) of subdivision (d) of Section 4629. If the regional center’s employees are represented by an exclusive representative, the regional center shall meet and confer with the exclusive representative about the implementation of any corrective action plan that would have an impact on the represented employees.
(c) (1) On or before January 1, 2028, the department shall submit a report to the Legislature that includes, but is not limited to, the data, methodology, and progress of implementation of quality, performance, and outcome measures.
(2) A report to be submitted pursuant to paragraph (1) shall be submitted in compliance with Section 9795 of the Government Code.
(d) The quality, performance, and outcome measures described in subdivision (b) shall:
(1) Be incorporated into any new statewide information technology system that replaces the current patchwork of legacy systems so that precise operational definitions and protocols for consistent data will be available to measure performance and outcomes. The quality, performance, and outcomes measures shall be recorded on the statewide information technology system in a format that will enable differences across different groups, and trends over time, to be measured at the individual, vendor, regional center, and systemwide levels.
(2) Meet the requirements of the final federal home- and community-based settings and access rules and be grounded on evidence-based research and practices.
Text of AB 1208 as amended, from the official record. Connect Plus keeps every version and highlights what changed.Compare versions