What is a regional center?
California has 21 regional centers. They are nonprofit agencies, funded and overseen by the state Department of Developmental Services (DDS).
A regional center finds out who can get services, helps each person plan, and pays for many of the services and supports in the plan.
Each person who qualifies gets a service coordinator. The service coordinator helps make a plan, tells the person where services are, and helps them get the services.
The plan is the IPP (Individual Program Plan). The person and the people they choose help write it.
A California law, the Lanterman Act, says what regional centers must do.
Sources: From the Department of Developmental Services (DDS): Regional Centers and Regional Center Eligibility and Services. The Lanterman Act is in the Welfare and Institutions Code, starting at section 4500.
Where the regional center fits
These pay first, for what they cover:
- School special education (an IEP)
- Health coverage Medi-Cal or private insurance
- Mental health your health plan or county
- In-home help IHSS, from your county
- Social Security SSI, for living costs
- Work Department of Rehabilitation
Your service coordinator can help you ask the others.
What each one covers
- School
- Special education and related services, written into an IEP (Individualized Education Program), usually until age 22.
- Health coverage
- Medi-Cal or private insurance pay for doctors, therapies, medical equipment, and behavioral health treatment for autism.
- Mental health
- The person’s health plan. For more serious needs, people with Medi-Cal can get care from the county mental health plan.
- In-home help
- In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) is a county program for people with Medi-Cal. It pays for help with personal care and housework, so a person can stay safely at home.
- Social Security
- Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other benefits, for living costs such as rent and food.
- Work
- The Department of Rehabilitation helps with getting ready for a job, finding one, and keeping it.
What “payer of last resort” means
The regional center pays for a service in the IPP when these other places do not cover it. The service coordinator can help the person ask them.
Many regional center services, like respite, day programs and supported living, usually have no other payer. So the regional center pays for them from the start.
Sources: Payer of last resort: Welfare and Institutions Code sections 4659 and 4648(a)(8).
Who can get regional center services?
A person with a developmental disability that:
- started before age 18
- is expected to continue indefinitely
- limits the person a lot in at least 3 of these 7 areas
It includes intellectual disability, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, and conditions closely related to intellectual disability or that need similar treatment.
The 7 areas
- Self-care
- Understanding and using language
- Learning
- Mobility
- Self-direction (decisions and behavior)
- Independent living
- Earning a living
As fits the person’s age.
Good to know
A diagnosis by itself is not enough. The regional center looks at how much the disability limits the person in daily life, as fits their age.
A condition that is only physical, only psychiatric, or only a learning disability does not qualify by itself. But having one of them does not rule out a person who also has a qualifying condition.
In this list, self-direction is the law’s name for one area of daily life. It is not a way to get services.
Sources: Welfare and Institutions Code section 4512(a)(1) and (l)(1). From DDS: Regional Center Eligibility and Services.
How to apply
- To apply: call the regional center where you live and ask for intake. Find yours at www.dds.ca.gov/rc/listings.
- It is free to find out if you qualify. Most services and supports are free, whatever your age or income.
- Under 5: a child can qualify without a diagnosis, with big limits in 2 of the first 5 areas. The regional center checks again before age 5.
- Under 3: babies and toddlers with a developmental delay, or at risk of a developmental disability, may also qualify for Early Start.
- For all Californians: DDS says these services are for everyone who qualifies, including immigrants with or without documents.
Good to know
California ended two family fee programs on July 1, 2024: the Family Cost Participation Program and the Annual Family Program Fee. A third, the Parental Fee Program, for a child in 24-hour care away from home, ended July 1, 2025. DDS still collects that program’s unpaid fees for care received through June 30, 2025. For a child’s day care and transportation, the family still pays the part any family would pay.
Qualifying without a diagnosis before age 5 is called provisional eligibility. The disability cannot be only physical. The child needs big limits in at least 2 of these 5 areas: self-care, understanding and using language, learning, mobility, and self-direction.
From birth to 3, services are planned through the IFSP (Individualized Family Service Plan); at 3 and 4, through the IPP. The regional center does a full eligibility review before the child turns 5.
DDS also says that as of February 2025, using these services usually does not affect a non-citizen’s immigration status. Anyone with questions about that may want to talk with an immigration legal services provider.
Sources: From DDS: Regional Center Eligibility and Services, Family Fee Programs Ended, Parental Fee Program, Resources for All Californians and Early Start. Provisional eligibility: Welfare and Institutions Code section 4512(a)(2).
Kinds of support
Based on your needs and goals in your IPP. Some examples:
- Home
- personal assistance
- supported living
- independent living services
- Family
- respite, a break for the family
- parent training
- Work
- supported employment
- paid internships
- Your day
- day programs
- social and recreation activities
- Getting around
- transportation
- travel training
- Health and behavior
- behavior services
- therapies and equipment
Good to know
What a person gets is decided in the IPP, based on their needs and goals. When health coverage, the school, or another program pays for a service, the regional center asks that it be used first.
Sources: Examples from the list of services and supports in Welfare and Institutions Code section 4512(b); paid internships are under section 4870.
Once you have regional center services
From age 3, there are three ways to get your regional center services. You choose.
Your regional center arranges it.
Less for you to manage.
Traditional services
Your regional center arranges your services with providers it works with.
Who finds your providers: Your regional center, and you can ask for a provider you prefer.
Good to know: Less for you to manage. Most people get services this way.
Participant-directed services
Inside traditional services, you can direct certain services yourself, such as respite or personal assistance. You hire your own worker, for the hours approved for you, at a set rate. A financial management service pays them after you approve their hours.
Who finds your providers: You, for those services.
Good to know: You are the employer, or share that role with the financial management service. There is no individual budget.
Self-Determination Program (SDP)
You get an individual budget, based on the services already approved for you. You decide how it is spent and who provides your services.
Who finds your providers: You, with help from an independent facilitator (paid from your budget) or your service coordinator.
Good to know: More of the work is yours, like a spending plan tied to your goals. A financial management service pays your providers. SDP starts with a free orientation.
You direct it.
More choice and control,
and more of the work.
In all three, you stay with your regional center and still have a service coordinator.
Have a question right now?
DAN, the Disability Access Navigator, answers your questions about regional center services, such as how to apply.
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