Family Cost Participation Program

Family Cost Participation (“Co-Pay”) Program Implementation

In 2004, the State of California passed a law that requires parents to share the cost of certain services purchased for their children with developmental disabilities ages 3 through 17 by regional centers. The law does not apply to all families and it only applies to a few services: respite, day care, and camping. ACRC will notify you if you qualify under the FCPP guidelines, and will work with you to determine your share of cost for these limited services.

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The basics of the FCPP are:

Who Is Required to Participate?

The FCPP only applies to families that meet the following criteria:

1. Your child is between ages 3 through 17 years old

2. Your child is a client of the regional center receiving Day Care, Respite or Camping Services purchased by the regional center

3. Your child lives at home

4. Your child is not eligible for Medi-Cal

How Is Cost Participation Determined?

Once it has been determined that a family meets the program participation requirements,an assessment using a statewide tool is required. The State Department of Developmental Services (DDS) has developed the Family Cost Participation Schedule for use by all regional centers to assess the parents’ co-payment amount. DDS has developed the Schedule and it is a sliding scale with payments ranging from 5% to 80% of the total cost of services per month, adjusted for the level of annual gross income and the number of persons living in the family home. Your income must be above a certain amount (at least 400% of the federal poverty level or greater) before a co-payment is required.

What Services Are Covered?

Family Cost Participation Plan assessments apply only to Day Care, Respite, and Camping Services that are included in the child’s individual program plan. No other services are affected.

How Will Family Co-Payments be Paid?

Families will pay their “cost participation” share directly to their service provider. Similarly, the regional center will also pay their share of the cost directly to the service provider.

When Does the FCPP Start?

Each regional center was responsible for administering the FCCP beginning January 1, 2005.

How Will ACRC Implement the FCPP?

The law creating the FCPP charges DDS with ensuring consistent implementation of the program statewide. In response, DDS has developed information and tools (including the sliding fee schedule) for use by each regional center in implementing the program.

Families are informed of the Family Cost Participation Program at Intake and again when the Individual Program Plan is developed. If families meet the participation requirements, they will be asked to provide proof of annual income within 10 working days (can request a 10 day extension) after the child’s IPP is created (or after a new client enters the regional center program).

ACRC will notify families of their cost participation amount, which is the portion of the service that they will be required to purchase directly from the service provider based on the sliding scale.

A participation review is done on an annual basis.

Additional Information:

Additional Information as well as implementation tools are available on the DDS website at http://www.dds.ca.gov/fcpp/index.cfm

FCPP Message Line (916) 978-6617 (Fax or leave a message)