The recession of 2008-2009 necessitated deep budget cuts for the State of California. As a result, regional centers were not allowed to purchase social recreation services, nonmedical therapies or camp services. Funding for these services remained “frozen” for over 15 years, but have now been restored by the Legislature. Individual Program Plan (IPP) planning teams can again include these services in the IPP. However, like any service funded by the regional center, all other sources of funding and generic resources must be explored first.

Regional center staff are required to be trained on the updated legislation reinstituting these services. Trainings at Golden Gate Regional Center were held on February 26th and 27th of this year. Topics covered in the trainings include:

• The GGRC Purchase-of-Service (POS) Guidelines 
• Welfare & Institutions Code (WIC) Section 4688.22 
• The Department of Developmental Services (DDS) Directive dated September 10, 2024

Additional training, to be conducted through the statewide standardized module on the Arcanet Learning Management System, will be held in Spring 2025 for all GGRC staff.

To find out how to receive reimbursement for social recreation services that are part of an individual’s IPP, see the GGRC document Steps for Social/Recreation Payment Under Service Code 024.

This post was originally published on April 17th, but has been enhanced with new information and republished since.