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self_determination

California's Self-Determination Program (NOW AVAILABLE)

Effective July 1, 2021, the Self-Determination Program (SDP) is available for all individuals served except for children under the age of 3 that do not have a developmental disability, and individuals served that live in intermediate care facilities.

SDP will let participants have more control over selecting their services and supports. One of the ways this can be done is by giving participants (or their parents or legal representatives) a specific budget to purchase the services and supports that they need to make their person centered plan work better for them. Participants may choose their services and pick which providers deliver those services. Participants are responsible for staying within their annual budget.

The Self-Determination Program is based on beliefs that people --

Plan their own lives and make their own decisions
Determine how funding is spent for their services and supports
Plan and choose their own formal and informal supports
Take responsibility for the decisions made
Validate those decisions through maintaining ongoing control

The five principles of self-determination are --

Freedom to exercise the same rights as all citizens; to establish, with freely chosen supports, family and friends, where they want to live, with whom they want to live, how their time will be occupied, and who supports them;
Authority to control a budget in order to purchase services and supports of their choosing;
Support, including the ability to arrange resources and personnel, which will allow flexibility to live in the community of their choice;
Responsibility, which includes the opportunity to take responsibility for making decisions in their own lives and accept a valued role in their community, and,
Confirmation, in making decisions in their own lives by designing and operating the service that they rely on.