6 Tips for Creating Your Self-Determination Program Budget and Spending Plan

When you’re transitioning from traditional Regional Center services to the Self-Determination Program (SDP), you’ll need to develop a spending plan based on the budget for your child. A budget is the dollars and cents that you have available to spend on services throughout the year, approved by the Regional Center. The spending plan is essentially how you're going to take that budget and spend it on services such as respite, social-rec, and more. You'll repeat this process every year your child is in SDP.

We’ve heard many questions and concerns from families, so to help things go as smoothly as possible, we’ve gathered the answers to frequently asked questions and expert tips from Undivided Self-Determination Consultant Iris Barker.

All of your child's traditional Regional Center services will continue until SDP is finalized. However, it is not usually a smooth road as you transition. There may be interruptions in services as the providers are onboarded with the financial management service (FMS). You will likely start SDP with some services/providers not quite ready to start. So while technically services don’t stop, if the employees haven’t been cleared by DDS or finished their paperwork or the vendor has a delay in onboarding with the FMS, the services will be on pause while the FMS gets everything lined up.

You need all your SDP vendors to be onboarded with your FMS prior to your child's official SDP start date. Otherwise, you won't be able to pay them for services on the start date.

If you're experiencing excessive delays, it can affect your child's services. Find out who is at the top of the top at your Regional Center, such as the executive director and supervisor in charge of the SDP unit. It should be on your Regional Center's website. Let them know how the delay is affecting you. They should be able to help. If there are still delays, you can file a complaint.

In general, Regional Centers seem to understand that the first year might not match the budget you are given because it can take a while to onboard new employees and find vendors. If you can explain why you didn’t use the funds, you will likely still receive them.

However, with Regional Centers facing budget cuts, it is more likely that you can keep your budget next year if you spend all of the money this year. It's more important after the first year to use all your budget if you want to receive the same amount the following year.

If you move through year two or year three and still have an overage, the Regional Center will likely start to question why the money isn’t being used. It is less "use it or lose it" and more of assessing whether you really need the service.

The Self-Determination Program Service Definitions is a document of approved services used by Regional Centers throughout the state. It helps to know what you’re likely to get approved for. However, you can always try to make a case for a service or item for your child. For example:

• Could the Self-Determination Program cover a service animal?

  • Regional Center might not pay for a service animal, but it can help with some of the costs of food, grooming, and healthcare for service dogs. You’ll likely need to write a letter explaining why your child benefits from the service dog, and provide a letter from a physician that explains how the dog helps your child.

• Can educational services be included?

  • Whether you can include tutoring in your child's spending plan depends on your Regional Center; not all Regional Centers will fund tutoring because they see it as the school district's responsibility. Coding for classes can be under social-rec activities, which a lot of Regional Centers are funding. Talk to your IF about what your Regional Center covers and make sure there is an IPP goal to support it.
  • Whether educational therapy can be included also depends on the Regional Center. Some families have been able to make the case that their educational therapy provides executive functioning therapy, which is an adaptive skill, so it’s being given through the adaptive therapy angle and not the educational angle.
  • If you have adaptive skills as a service, you might put that toward executive functioning support. The vendor needs to be willing to write reports at the end of the year showing what goals the child was working toward.

• Can SDP pay for a private school?

  • In short, SDP doesn’t pay for private schools. You may be able to use SDP funding for tutoring or adaptive living skills classes.

In some cases, you'll need to get denial letters from generic resources such as your insurance or school district explaining that the service is not covered or available. Then, make a specific case for why that service is needed for your child. Note that Regional Center will often only pay for evidence-based services, so be prepared to make your case for a specific therapy, adaptive clothes/shoes, or whatever it is you are seeking to cover.

We have heard from Undivided families that some of the items approved in their spending plan one year were denied the next year. For example, a summer camp was approved last year, but now the Regional Center is denying the camp and saying it's required to be accredited.

The Undivided team recommends that you talk to your independent facilitator about how to handle your Regional Center and your FMS. Double check if you have something specific in your spending plan (e.g. ABA) that they are trying to check against.

If the Regional Center says there is a regulation that you haven't heard of, such as requiring a camp to be accredited, you can respond with “Please share the regulation with me where this is.” Try to find out if it's a policy in the Regional Center's purchase of service standards. If not, you could consider filing an appeal.

We have also heard families say Regional Center delays approving items from their spending plan, such as waiting to approve day care until the next school year schedule is finalized, or waiting to approve funding for a parent training conference until the speaker list is released. As above, you can request the policy where these “rules” are noted in writing. Request to speak with the supervisor. This is an issue because they are using up time; by the time they approve the conference, it could be over already.

In addition to adding respite to your child’s spending plan, you can request room in the budget for services that support you as a caregiver. Most Regional Centers acknowledge the importance of parent education and training and discuss various avenues of training in their Purchase of Service Standards. Here are some ideas:

If your child has a condition that requires specialized care, you may request training so that you can better support your child in that area. You can add a goal to your child's IPP as to why it would be beneficial for your child and put it under “parent mentor coaching.” It doesn’t hurt to ask, but Regional Center may deny the request if your certification can lead to an employment opportunity for you.

If you need some support as your child's caregiver, such as parent therapy, it may be possible to add support under the category of parent coaching if it is something that could help your child. You may be able to make a case for why a specific therapist is necessary. Some FMS will allow a therapist as a parent support coach, but some will see "therapist" and reject it no matter what the support is because they don’t cover therapy.

Undivided membership can be added under codes for parent coaching, parent consulting, or parent training to support you as a parent. Undivided’s add-on coaching services can also be included in SDP spending plans to help you advocate for your child in school or in the health care system.

If you cannot secure parent support through SDP funding, the Regional Center may have lists of support groups based on your child’s diagnosis.

Your insurance is another resource for therapy. Undivided has a step-by-step guide to help you fund caregiver therapy.

You may be periodically asked by your Regional Center service coordinator to update their person-centered plan (PCP). There is no specified timeline for updates, unlike with an annual IPP. You can update your child's PCP any time you feel it is needed, such as if your child has new support needs that you want to make sure get addressed. Learn more in our article Person-Centered Planning 101.

Remember that the Self-Determination Program helps many Regional Center clients use their funding with more flexibility to make sure their unmet needs are covered, but SDP isn't for everyone. If you have switched to SDP and want to return to the traditional model of Regional Center funding, inform your service coordinator. Undivided's Self-Determination Consultant Iris Barker says, "You can go back anytime, but once you go back to traditional, you have to wait a year to go back to SDP."