California Self-Determination Program: Eligibility, Budget, Hiring

The California Self-Determination Program lets a Regional Center client take direct control of an annual service budget instead of having the Regional Center pick and arrange every provider. You choose your own workers, decide how the money is spent, and build supports around your own goals. In exchange, you take on the work of hiring, managing, and tracking every dollar, and every purchase has to fit within a federal Medicaid waiver.¹

Who Can Join

Any current Regional Center consumer with a developmental disability as defined in Welfare and Institutions Code section 4512 is eligible.¹ That statute defines the disability as one beginning before age 18, expected to continue indefinitely, and creating a substantial limitation.²

One boundary matters up front: if you currently live in a licensed long-term care facility such as a skilled nursing facility, you cannot participate unless you are actively planning to move into the community within 90 days. Participation itself is voluntary. The Regional Center cannot pressure you to join or cut off other services if you decline, and if you try the program and it doesn’t work, you can return to the traditional service model at any time with no gap in services.¹

The Steps to Enroll

Before anything else, attend an SDP orientation. Sessions are offered statewide through the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, and your Regional Center may run its own version.³ The orientation covers the principles of the program, the roles involved, and the responsibilities you’re picking up.

After orientation, tell your Regional Center service coordinator you want to participate. That notification triggers the formal transition and must happen before you can move into budget and planning.⁴

From there, you build a Person-Centered Plan (PCP) describing what you want your life to look like and what goals you’re working toward. It’s built around your strengths, preferences, and culture rather than a list of service categories.⁵ The PCP feeds into your Individual Program Plan (IPP), the official document the Regional Center uses to authorize services. The PCP is your vision; the IPP is the paperwork that makes it happen.

Federal rules also require a written backup plan identifying risks (a worker not showing up, a service falling through) and how they’ll be handled. That backup plan becomes part of your official service plan.⁶ Take it seriously. If your only caregiver calls in sick and you have no backup documented, the gap falls on you.

How Your Budget Is Set

Your Individual Budget is the annual dollar amount you have to work with. For current Regional Center consumers, it starts as the total purchase-of-service spending on you over the most recent 12 months.⁷ That historical figure becomes your baseline.

Your IPP team can negotiate adjustments up or down when your circumstances, needs, or resources have changed, or when the team identifies a need that was never addressed in earlier plans.⁷ A recent move, a change in health, or a documented support gap can all justify an adjustment.

The key constraint: the Regional Center must certify that the adjusted amount would have been spent on you regardless of whether you joined SDP. The program is designed to be cost-neutral, not a way to unlock extra funding. The fees for your Financial Management Service and your Independent Facilitator, if you use one, come out of this same budget and do not increase the total.⁷ Factor those in early, because they reduce what’s available for direct services.

What the Money Can and Cannot Buy

You can only purchase services and supports that appear on the federally approved waiver service list and that address a goal in your IPP. Within that limit you have room to move: you can hire your own workers, contract with local businesses, or negotiate arrangements with community resources without those providers being vendored by the Regional Center.⁴ The only exception is your Financial Management Service provider, which must be vendored.

Several categories are off-limits. Because the program runs under a federal Medicaid waiver, Medicaid’s payor-of-last-resort rule applies: you cannot use SDP funds for anything covered by another source such as private insurance, Medi-Cal state plan services, In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), school district services, or the Department of Rehabilitation.⁴ Federal rules also prohibit using waiver funds for room and board, meaning rent, mortgage, utilities, and meals. Gifts, entertainment, fines, and payments to reserve beds or services that aren’t being used are also barred.⁸

Your spending plan translates PCP goals into line items with the service, frequency, SDP service code, and cost. The total cannot exceed your Individual Budget, and the Regional Center must certify the plan before services begin. During certification, it checks that every item addresses an IPP goal, qualifies for federal funding, and isn’t available through a generic program like Medi-Cal or IHSS.⁹ Items get rejected here fairly often, and it usually comes down to the generic-services rule.

Hiring Your Own Workers

Hiring directly is one of the biggest reasons people join. Anyone at least 18, legally eligible to work, and skilled for the job can be hired, including family, friends, or neighbors, without Regional Center vendorization.¹⁰

There are family limits. A spouse or parent generally cannot provide respite, personal assistance, or day care services.¹⁰ The logic tracks: respite exists to give the primary caregiver a break, so the caregiver cannot also be the respite worker. Siblings, adult children, and other relatives face fewer restrictions and can often fill roles that parents and spouses cannot. Skilled nursing can come from a family member who holds the required license.

The Two Roles You’ll Work With

Financial Management Service

Every SDP participant must use a Financial Management Service (FMS) provider. The FMS handles payroll for workers you hire, manages tax withholding and reporting, processes payments to vendors, and tracks spending against your approved plan.¹¹ You choose your FMS from among vendored providers, and its fee comes out of your Individual Budget.

The FMS effectively takes the employer-of-record paperwork off your desk. When you hire a caregiver, the FMS runs payroll, withholds Social Security and Medicare taxes, files the required forms, and handles workers’ compensation logistics. Without it you would be personally responsible for all of that compliance, which is why the role is mandatory.

Independent Facilitator

An Independent Facilitator (IF) is optional. The IF helps you develop your PCP, identify services, find providers, and advocate for your budget during the IPP process. You pick them, and the fee is paid from your Individual Budget.¹²

The IF has to be genuinely independent. They cannot also be providing other services to you, be employed by someone who does, or be the parent of a minor participant or the spouse of any participant.¹² That rule exists to prevent conflicts when the IF is helping you decide where to spend money. A good one can be worth the cost in the first year, when you’re negotiating a budget and building a spending plan from scratch.

Changing Things Mid-Year

Your budget and spending plan get an annual review with your IPP team, but you don’t have to wait for that cycle. You can request a meeting to adjust your Individual Budget any time your circumstances, needs, or resources change.⁴ The same cost-neutrality certification applies.

You can also move funds between service categories within your existing spending plan during the year. That doesn’t require a full budget renegotiation, but you do need approval from the Regional Center or your IPP team before making the transfer. The Regional Center must notify your FMS within three business days of any finalized spending plan change.⁹ The flexibility to shift money is one of the program’s real advantages over the traditional model, where reallocating usually means starting over with new authorizations.

What to Know Before You Hire

Even though the FMS handles the mechanics, you’re the employer of record. Participants who pay a household employee $3,000 or more in cash wages during 2026 must withhold and pay Social Security tax (6.2% each from worker and employer) and Medicare tax (1.45% each). If you pay household employees $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter, you owe federal unemployment (FUTA) tax on the first $7,000 of each worker’s wages. Federal income tax withholding is not required for household employees, but you must withhold it if the employee asks and you agree.¹³ If forms are filed late or incorrectly, it’s your problem first.

California’s minimum wage is $16.90 per hour as of January 1, 2026, and some cities set higher rates.¹⁴ Federal overtime rules require time-and-a-half after 40 hours in a workweek for covered workers.¹⁵ California also requires workers’ compensation insurance for all employers with no minimum-hours threshold, so coverage is mandatory from the first hour your worker is on the job.

If a Service or Budget Is Denied

SDP participants keep every appeal and fair hearing right that exists under the traditional Regional Center model.⁴ If the Regional Center denies a service, reduces your budget, or rejects a spending plan item without your agreement, it must send written notice by certified mail explaining the decision. Notice of a denied new service must go out within five working days. Notice of a reduction, termination, or change to existing services must arrive at least 30 days before it takes effect.¹⁶

You can request a fair hearing through the state’s Office of Administrative Hearings. The hearing officer must be impartial and not involved in the original decision, and you have the right to review your case file beforehand. An urgent health need that could result in serious harm supports a request for an expedited hearing, and language interpretation and accessibility accommodations are provided at no cost.¹⁷

Don’t assume budget disputes will resolve themselves informally. If your IPP team can’t agree on a service or an adjustment, using the formal appeal process early protects your access to services while the dispute is pending.

1
California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code WIC 4685.8
2
California Legislative Information. California Welfare and Institutions Code WIC 4512
3
State Council on Developmental Disabilities. SCDD Statewide Self-Determination Program Trainings
4
California Department of Developmental Services. Self-Determination Program – Frequently Asked Questions
5
California Department of Developmental Services. Person Centered Planning and Self Directed Supports Guidance
6
Medicaid.gov. Key Components of Self-Directed Services – HCBS Self-Direction Series
7
Self-Determination Program. Development of the Individual Budget and Spending Plan
8
Medicaid.gov. Preventing Unallowable Costs in HCBS Payment Rates
9
dds.ca.gov. D-2025-Self Determination Program-003
10
California Department of Developmental Services. Summary of FAQs for Self-Advocates and Families About Participant-Directed Services
11
Department of Developmental Services. Financial Management Services Directive
12
Department of Developmental Services. Independent Facilitator Directive
13
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 926 (2026), Household Employer’s Tax Guide
14
California Department of Industrial Relations. Minimum Wage Frequently Asked Questions
15
U.S. Department of Labor. Wages and the Fair Labor Standards Act
16
Justia Law. California Welfare and Institutions Code WIC 4710-4714 – Fair Hearing Procedure
17
Medicaid.gov. Understanding Medicaid Fair Hearings Factsheet