SECTION 1.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:(a) It is good public policy to increase the number of Californians with developmental disabilities who pay taxes and are self-sufficient and involved in their communities.
(b) Individuals with developmental disabilities can and would prefer to work and are entitled to the supports and services necessary to do so.
(c) The Americans with Disabilities Act recognizes the rights of people with developmental disabilities to live, recreate, and work in integrated, community-based settings. Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act requires states to
provide qualified individuals with disabilities with services and programs in the most integrated setting appropriate to their needs.
(d) People with developmental disabilities are an important and largely untapped employment and economic resource.
(e) Research demonstrates that wages and hours worked increase dramatically as individuals move from sheltered or facility-based employment to integrated employment, and suggests that other benefits include an increase in earnings and taxes paid, reduced reliance on publicly funded services, expanded social relationships, heightened self-determination, and more typical job acquisitions and job roles.
(f) Increasing integrated and gainful employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities requires collaboration and cooperation by state and local agencies,
including, but not limited to, the State Department of Developmental Services and regional centers, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities, the Employment Development Department, the Department of Rehabilitation, and the State Department of Education.
(g) Working-age Californians who have developmental disabilities have an unemployment rate as high as 80 percent and traditional approaches to increase employment rates through training and employer outreach have not been sufficient to solve this problem.
(h) The federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services states that Medicaid-financed prevocational services to sheltered workshops are “not an end point, but a time limited [although no specific limit is given] service for the purpose of helping someone obtain competitive employment.”
(i) Sheltered
workshops are not doing what the Medicaid Program is paying them to do. Between 2007 and 2010, sheltered workshops in California transitioned less than 5 percent of workers into integrated employment.