Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Matter

By Assemblymember Marie Waldron

As a member of the bi-partisan Assembly Select Committee on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, chaired by Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D – Fairfield), I invite you to complete a brief survey about the services offered by the state’s 21 Regional Centers. We are currently undertaking this survey for clients and parents/caregivers about California’s Regional Centers to help ensure that members of the state’s I/DD community receive the care they deserve and the state provides the resources needed. Regional Centers are nonprofit, private corporations under contract with the Department of Developmental services to provide and coordinate services and support for Intellectual and Developmentally Disabled individuals. Regional centers support more than 300,000 I/DD individuals, approximately half of whom are children.

If you, your child or loved one is in need of services for disabled individuals, we want to hear from you. There are two surveys. One for clients and parents or caretakers of clients. The other is for those who provide vendor services to Regional Centers. Here is the link for our survey: California State Assembly Select Committee on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Regional Center Survey
Regional Centers are governed by a board of directors; half are persons with developmental disabilities, or their parents/guardians. Today’s Regional Centers are a far cry from the State Hospitals of the 19th and early 20th centuries that merely warehoused the developmentally disabled.

Input is essential to help us develop policies that enhance the lives of some of California’s most vulnerable citizens and will be extremely valuable to us as we evaluate the performance of our Regional Centers. You can complete the survey anonymously. But if you wish to be contacted about a particular issue or concern regarding a Regional Center, you will have the opportunity to give us your name and contact information for follow-up.