California DSP 304 Form: Rights, Posting, and Personnel Files

The California DSP 304 form is a one-page consumer rights notice published by the California Department of Developmental Services (DDS), titled “Rights of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities.”¹ If you run or work in a facility that serves people with developmental disabilities, you have three jobs with it: post it where consumers and families can see it, give a copy to each person receiving services, and keep a signed copy in every employee’s personnel file.²

What Rights the Form Lists

The DSP 304 draws its content from California Welfare and Institutions Code Section 4502. The first block on the form lists day-to-day personal freedoms that apply to anyone residing in or receiving services at a covered facility:¹

Wearing your own clothes, keeping your own toilet articles, and spending a reasonable amount of your own money on small purchases.
Having individual storage space for personal use.
Seeing visitors each day.
Making and receiving confidential telephone calls.
Access to writing materials, stamps, and unopened mail.
Refusing electroconvulsive therapy, behavior modification that causes pain or trauma, and psychosurgery.

The second block reflects the broader Lanterman Act rights: treatment in the least restrictive environment, dignity and privacy, prompt medical care, religious freedom, community participation, exercise and recreation, freedom from harm, and the right to make choices about where to live, relationships, work, and daily activities.³

Which Facilities Have to Post and Distribute It

The requirement reaches any facility under DDS oversight that serves people with developmental disabilities. That includes state developmental centers, licensed community care facilities receiving regional center funding, and health facilities as defined in Health and Safety Code Section 1250. The form itself states that it “must be posted, as well as distributed to each person with a developmental disability receiving services” at any of these locations.¹

Posting means displaying the notice where consumers and families can actually see it: a common area, not a file cabinet. California law requires it to be posted prominently in English, Spanish, and other languages appropriate to the population served. The Director of Developmental Services may require additional methods of bringing it to consumers’ attention beyond posting.

Where to Download It

The current version, revised January 2000, is a free PDF on the California DDS website.¹ Print as many copies as you need. There is no fee, no registration portal, and no approval step; it’s a public document meant for wide distribution. If you need it in a language other than English, contact your local regional center or DDS directly, since the statute requires versions in Spanish and other languages appropriate to the people you serve.

Signed Copies in Employee Personnel Files

Alongside posting and consumer distribution, facilities are expected to keep a copy of the DSP 304 in each employee’s personnel file, and that record is subject to audit by DDS and the regional center.² The signed copy shows the staff member has been informed of consumers’ rights and understands the standards of care they’re expected to uphold. Auditors look for it during unannounced inspections, and missing acknowledgments can trigger compliance citations.

The standard practice when onboarding a Direct Support Professional is to review the DSP 304 during orientation, have the employee sign and date it, and file the original. This step is separate from the competency-based training required under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 4695.2. The rights acknowledgment is about consumer protections, not the employee’s technical training credentials.

When a Right Can Be Denied

The form addresses this directly. Under Title 17, California Code of Regulations, Section 50530, the professional in charge of a facility (or their designee) may deny a consumer any of the first five personal-freedom rights above, but only for good cause.¹ The rights to refuse electroconvulsive therapy, painful behavior modification, and psychosurgery cannot be overridden.

If a consumer believes a right was denied without good cause, the DSP 304 tells them to call the local clients’ rights advocate, who must respond to the complaint. Regional centers must also notify consumers in writing, in a language they understand, of their right to file a complaint when they apply for services and at each regularly scheduled planning meeting.⁴

It Is Not the DSP Training Form

One quick boundary, because it trips people up. The DSP 304 is not the form for registering or tracking Direct Support Professional training completion. California’s DSP training program under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 4695.2 uses a separate system, and certification notices, test results, and certificates live in the training portal at dsptrain.org rather than on any DDS paper form.⁵ If you came looking for training records, that’s where to go. If you came looking for the consumer rights notice you need to post and file, the DSP 304 PDF from DDS is the right document.

1
Department of Developmental Services. Rights of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities DSP 304
2
San Andreas Regional Center. DSP 304 California DDS Form
3
California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code 4502
4
Department of Developmental Services. Consumer Rights, Appeals and Complaints
5
Department of Developmental Services. Direct Support Professional Training