How to Find a Respite Provider in California

Your Regional Center likely works with respite care agencies that can help you find a respite worker. Ask your service coordinator about access to this service. Note that agency respite workers are typically paid minimum wage and are bound to an in-home only service. If you need care outside your home, you may ask for an exemption.

Each Regional Center holds different rules for children with medical conditions. Undivided Public Benefits Specialist Lisa Concoff Kronbeck advises that if your child has a specialized medical condition, it’s important to find out what type of intervention is allowed by the respite worker. For example, some centers require respite workers to have licensed vocational nurse (LVN) training to be allowed to change a G-tube or intervene during a seizure. Other Regional Centers dictate that their respite workers cannot practice these interventions while some allow parents to train workers in this area.

Remember that if you don’t find a respite care worker to be a good fit, you can request different care providers at any time.

Another option for respite care through Regional Center is parent conversion, also known as parent/family choice. What this means is that the parent finds their own caregiver and then helps that caregiver register with a respite agency in order to bring them on through Regional Center.

Undivided Education Advocate Lisa Carey suggests that parents “go about this the same way they would finding a babysitter. They can use their family members, friends, parents’ groups on social media, or real-life connections.” Carey adds that she prefers parent conversion over agency-assigned as it allows the parents to be in more of a supervisor role, dictating what respite care workers can and cannot do.

As veteran respite care finders know all too well, finding a qualified and trustworthy person to care for your child can be a major task. Searching for someone willing to work for the state respite care standard of $15 per hour presents an additional challenge. Several Undivided parents shared with us that to offset this low pay, they make up the difference in rate by privately hiring the caregiver for extra work outside respite care hours and paying their own determined (much higher) rate. (Please note that this is only possible when hiring through the parent conversion method. If you choose to have an agency provide you with a respite worker, you cannot privately hire or offer to offset low wages.)

Regional Center’s Self-Determination Program (SDP) can be particularly useful for families who don’t live near Regional Center vendors or who don’t have local agencies that can provide care specific to their child’s needs. With this approach, you have control over your budget and can put money toward services and resources that are more effective for you and your child. Under Self-Determination, the respite care provider of your choice is not bound to the in-home-only, minimum-wage rules of the traditional respite agency.

Since you are creating the budget, you are allowed to choose the type of home service and dictate the rate you pay, giving you the option to pay more or receive more respite hours for the same price that Regional Center would have paid a respite agency. (SDP eliminates going through the respite agency, which takes a cut of the budget.) By eliminating the respite agency, this removes rules and restrictions that Regional Center abides by. Your respite provider is able to drive your child to different locations, such as a socialization class, which allows you to have respite time while your child is busy and entertained. We've also heard from Undivided families who have used SDP funds to help them recruit a respite provider, such as paying for a Care.com membership.

You’ll need to discuss with your Financial Management Service (FMS) whether to use the sole employer or co-employer model when hiring a respite provider for your child through SDP.

• If you are the sole employer, you are responsible for the entire hiring process and dictate the respite worker’s duties, such as being trained to administer medications.
• In the co-employer model, the FMS is involved in hiring and termination decisions, and care workers are entitled to health benefits if they work a certain number of hours per week. If an employee elects health insurance, then you must share in these costs via your SDP spending plan. In addition, the respite worker generally may not administer any medications unless they are credentialed (LVN or registered nurse).

When you're looking for a respite provider, you can let them know that payment will come through an FMS by calling it a “third-party agency.” Be sure to also let potential candidates know that they will have to go through a Live scan and background check.