May Revise of the 2022-23 State Budget Fails to Address Acute Disability Workforce Crisis
The Lanterman Coalition thanks Governor Gavin Newsom and his administration for addressing some of the developmental disability system’s workforce instability crisis in the proposed one-time funding spending in the 2022-23 May Revise budget. Unfortunately, it does not go far enough to address the underlying staffing issue.
The root cause of the disability staffing crisis is having competitive wages within the larger labor force marketplace. The Lanterman Coalition consists of dozens of statewide organizations representing Californians with developmental disabilities, their families, direct support professionals, and regional center staff. To address the staffing shortage the Coalition members strongly support the following proposals put forward by the Legislature to:
- Hire more direct support professionals by accelerating the implementation of the DDS rate models and ensuring those models are updated every three years to create a sustainable system, and
- Hire more regional center service coordinators by fixing the core staffing formula. To our dismay, neither of these proposals were included in the Governor’s May Revise.
An immediate strategy to address the workforce crisis is to accelerate the means for service providers and regional centers to pay their staff competitive wages. Californians with disabilities and their families need assistance now, as service providers and regional centers ration services and struggle to recruit, hire, and maintain an adequate workforce – a workforce who, similar to our valued CA Health Care Professionals, has worked throughout the pandemic to provide direct supports to people with IDD and their families.
Through The Lanterman Act 380,000 Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families are entitled to services and the state is obligated to provide those services and supports – but we are failing. Last year the Legislature and Governor Newsom made a new commitment to our community by approving historical investments into direct services, but by waiting for those investments we risk a dangerous too-little-too-late scenario. Considering the massive state budget surplus, it seems illogical to make California’s IDD community wait longer to simply be made financially whole.
Please consider continuing the commitment set forth in last year’s budget and invest in the disability community immediately by adopting the Lanterman Coalition supported proposals to address the workforce crisis. Californians with disabilities, their families, and their direct support workforce will thank you for creating a future that includes ALL of us!
To show support for The Lanterman Coalition’s funding proposals that can help end the acute disability workforce crisis, visit TheFutureIncludesUs.org.
Our stories
A mother who wants stability for her son
"Our son, David, has autism and significant difficulties with language and needs 24-hour staff support. In the last 27 months David has had 10 different support staff. For obvious reasons, this is not an ideal situation, and recruiting for David can be challenging due to the difficulties of communicating with him. Given the low wage rate with little opportunity for advancement, finding a higher paying job is always a prime motivation for staff to move on. There is always uncertainty about when the situation will resolve, and uncertainty is difficult for David and the rest of our family. The reassurance that would come with improvements for our direct support staff and knowing that the system is stable is priceless."
- Betsy Katz, Mom and President of The Arc of California
A direct support professional financially struggling
"I receive a paycheck twice a month. I work 120 hours plus each pay period and I bring home only $1500 at the most, usually less than that after taxes. I can't even afford my own place. I even started driving for Lyft to make ends meet. I love my job I enjoy going to work every day but it's not enough to survive."
- Anonymous Direct Support Professional, Solano County
The state budget matters
The Problem
For two decades, the state is failing Californians with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), causing individuals and families to suffer without critical services and supports. Violating its legal requirement under the Lanterman Act, the state has chronically underfunded the community based organizations that provide services such as supported employment, independent living, family respite, and community integration. As a result, the workforce is leaving in masses - forced to leave the job they love because they struggle with poverty as a result of low wages - and programs are closing their doors. Instead of receiving the services they need to actively contribute to our communities, people are sitting at home without services and families are left abandoned by the state that promised to support them.
The Promise
California's Lanterman Act passed in 1969. This law sought to end the long era of institutionalization by setting up the regional center system instead. This meant that people with I/DD could stay in their communities of origin instead of being removed to the segregated isolation of an institution. When this law passed state lawmakers promised to fund community based services and supports people with I/DD need to live full lives. Yet in recent years the state has failed to live up to its promise, leaving people with I/DD unsupported, isolated, and vulnerable.
What Can You Do?
Take two minutes to email, call or tweet to the Governor your elected officials to pass a 2022-23 budget plan that prioritizes people with IDD by accelerating the five-year IDD funding plan to address the acute disability system workforce crisis! #TheFutureIncludesUs