Can I use different vendors than I originally wrote in my SDP spending plan?

If you have money in your SDP budget that you didn’t use, you may wonder whether you can use it for something else. You might have heard about the "10% rule" to move money in the budget as long as it's under 10% of the budget. Undivided's Self-Determination Consultant Iris Barker says that the 10% rule applies only within the budget categories, such as Living Arrangement, Health and Safety, Employment and Community Participation.

You can use different vendors than are listed in your spending plan as long as they are providing the same type service. For example, if you originally planned for a specific social-rec class, if you want to switch to a different type of social-rec activity, you will have to update the spending plan. When you build your budget, you need to do the best you can to put as many activities in the budget in the beginning so that you don’t have to update the spending plan when the kiddo changes their mind about a class.

Moving things from one code to another has to go through Regional Center. Even if you put the perfect code, Regional Center could deem it a generic resource and deny it. You'll need to show with documentation why a service is needed over others.