History of Regional Centers/Lanterman Act

The twenty-one regional centers within the State of California provide a coordinated system for diagnosing individuals suspected of or having a developmental disability and helping people with these disabilities to make use of all essential public and private services to meet their special needs (medical and dental, educational, recreational, vocational, social and emotional).

The regional center system was established to provide coordinated planning for lifetime community care for people with developmental disability as a viable alternative to Developmental Center placement. The goal of regional center services is to enhance and maximize the functioning of each person with a developmental disability to avoid the development of secondary disabilities, and to reduce the incidence of developmental disabilities through a vigorous program of identification, education, and prevention.

Regional centers were established through state legislation sponsored primarily by Assemblyman Frank Lanterman. In 1965, pilot projects were initiated in San Francisco and Los Angeles to assist mentally retarded persons and their families in locating, or spearheading the development of community services and programs for their special needs.

In 1969, AB 225 (Lanterman Mental Retardation Services Act) established a statewide system of regional centers based upon the pilot projects. In the first three years of operation, there were seven regional centers statewide; since then, the number of regional centers has grown to the current number of twenty-one.

In 1974, the additional legislation (AB 846-Lanterman) went into effect which expanded the clientele served by the regional centers to include persons with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism, and other significantly handicapping conditions found to be closely related to mental retardation. It has been estimated that 5% of the population in California has a significant developmental disability. Regional Centers currently serve approximately 180,000 people.

Alta California Regional Center currently serves the residents of Alpine, Colusa, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sierra, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties. (See back cover for addresses and phone numbers of our branch offices.)