WHEREAS, Fifty years ago, the State of California piloted a new approach to serving individuals with developmental disabilities by enacting a bold new direction in public-private partnership that fundamentally changed and dramatically improved the quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families, and that would become a model for the nation; and

WHEREAS, That partnership model was based on the premise that the services required of a regional center are of such a special and unique nature that they could not be satisfactorily provided by state agencies and thus required private nonprofit entities to contract with the state to meet the unique needs of the different geographic regions; and

WHEREAS, In 1965, Assembly Bill 691 established a pilot program that created two regional centers in 1966, one at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, later named Frank D. Lanterman Regional Center, and another at San Francisco Aid Retarded Children, Inc., later named Golden Gate Regional Center, with the Regional Center of the East Bay formed later from the latter project’s eastern region; and

WHEREAS, The pilot program was so successful that it was turned into a permanent statewide program in 1969 by Assembly Bill 225, known as the Lanterman Mental Retardation Services Act; and

WHEREAS, In 1973, Assembly Bill 846 recast the act as the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act and proposed expansion of eligibility for regional center services to individuals with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and autism, among other developmental disabilities; and

WHEREAS, In 1977, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act was passed, enumerating various rights to individuals with developmental disabilities, enshrining the role of regional centers as advocates for those rights, and creating an individualized planning process that forms the core of the uniquely tailored services and supports that each participating individual receives; and

WHEREAS, Regional centers provide service coordination to ensure that the needs of individuals with developmental disabilities are met using a combination of natural supports, generic services, and the purchase of vendored services; and

WHEREAS, Community-based service providers offer an array of services in each community to meet the unique needs of every individual with a developmental disability, doing so at significant cost savings to the State of California when compared to the cost of institutional care; and

WHEREAS, California’s network of regional centers and service providers serve nearly 300,000 individuals with developmental disabilities who, as a result of the service, are able to live, work, grow, and thrive in the community; and

WHEREAS, Years of underfunding have reduced access to needed services and supports, have threatened the sustainability of the system as a whole, have strained families, and have reduced the quality of life for individuals with developmental disabilities; and

WHEREAS, The active support and leadership of the Legislature is a critical component of any and all efforts to reinvigorate and renew the community-based developmental services system; now, therefore, be it