What is the Self-Determination Program in California?

The Self-Determination Program (SDP) is a statewide California option, available through every Regional Center since 2021, that gives a person with a developmental disability and their family direct control over an individual budget instead of using the Regional Center's contracted vendors. The family chooses the services, picks the providers, and directs the spending through a written spending plan, with a required Financial Management Service handling payments. More than 7,000 Californians are enrolled. It funds the same kinds of supports as the traditional system; what changes is who decides.

How is SDP different from traditional Regional Center services?

In the traditional model, the Regional Center authorizes services and assigns you to its vendored providers, and you rarely see what anything costs. In SDP, you receive the budget as a visible number and direct it yourself: any qualified provider, including ones the Regional Center has never contracted with, and service types that fit your person rather than the vendor list. The trade is administration. SDP families maintain a spending plan, work with a Financial Management Service, and often hire an independent facilitator. More control, more paperwork.

Can the Self-Determination Program pay for housing or rent?

Generally not rent itself. Rent and food come from the person's own income, usually SSI, the same as in the traditional system. What SDP can fund is the support side of living more independently: independent living coaching, community integration support, respite, transportation, and supported-living-style services in the person's own home. Families combine an SDP-funded support plan with housing paid from personal income. For the full picture of California living options and how each is funded, see the Homies planning guide, What Happens to My Adult Child When I'm Gone.

Can SDP pay for life-sharing or a supportive roommate?

The supports in a life-sharing arrangement, meaning the daily help a matched supportive roommate provides, are the kind of service a spending plan can include, and SDP families are free to choose specialized providers like Homies. The specifics depend on your budget, your spending plan, and your Regional Center's certification, especially under the 2026 rules. The honest answer is: it is a conversation between your family, your facilitator, and the provider, and it should happen early in your planning rather than after the budget is set.

How do I enroll in the Self-Determination Program?

Five steps, in order: attend a free SDP orientation (required, offered monthly and virtually), tell your Regional Center service coordinator you want to enroll, complete a person-centered planning process and update the IPP, receive your individual budget and write the spending plan, and select a Financial Management Service. An independent facilitator can guide the whole sequence, paid from the budget. Plan for three to six months from orientation to first services.

Is SDP worth the paperwork?

It depends on what the traditional system is doing for you. Families who feel well served by their Regional Center's vendor list rarely switch. Families who want a provider the Regional Center doesn't contract with, or a support shaped differently than the standard service codes allow, are the ones SDP was built for. The budget transparency alone changes the conversation: you negotiate from a number instead of a mystery.

California Family Guide

The Self-Determination Program: the Regional Center budget your family controls

Since 2021, every California Regional Center has offered a second path: instead of being assigned to contracted vendors, your family receives the budget as a number you can see and directs it yourself. More than 7,000 families have switched. This guide covers what SDP is, what it funds, and how to enroll.

Talk to Our Team How Enrollment Works

Jordan and Nicole, matched roommates through Homies

The definition

What the Self-Determination Program actually changes

In the traditional Regional Center model, your service coordinator authorizes services and the Regional Center assigns providers from its vendor list. You usually never learn what any of it costs.

The Self-Determination Program flips that. The Regional Center calculates an individual budget from what your family member's services cost, hands you the number, and your family decides how to spend it: which services, which providers, on what schedule. A required Financial Management Service pays the bills and keeps the books. The dollars are the same Regional Center dollars. The decisions move to your kitchen table.

	Traditional Regional Center services	Self-Determination Program
Who picks providers	Regional Center, from its vendored list	Your family, including non-vendored providers
Budget visibility	Costs are mostly invisible to families	You see the full number and direct it
Flexibility	Standard service codes and vendor offerings	Supports shaped around the person
Administration	Regional Center handles it	Spending plan + FMS + optional facilitator
Best for	Families well served by the vendor list	Families who want a provider or support shape the list doesn't offer

Same Lanterman Act entitlement, same dollars, different decision-maker.

The budget, honestly

What an SDP budget can fund, and what it can't

A spending plan can include

Independent living coaching and skill-building
Supported-living-style services in the person's own home, including the daily support in a life-sharing arrangement
Community integration and social supports
Respite for family caregivers
Transportation supports
The independent facilitator and the FMS itself

It generally cannot pay for

Rent and food: those come from the person's own income, usually SSI, same as the traditional system
Anything Medi-Cal or generic resources already cover
Supports for the family rather than the person

The housing pattern that works: rent from personal income, support from the budget. Our guide to every California living option covers how the pieces fit together.

How to enroll, start to finish

Six steps, three to six months. An independent facilitator can run most of it, paid from the budget.

Attend a free orientation

Required before enrolling, and genuinely useful. SCDD and Regional Centers run them monthly, virtually, in English, Spanish, and other languages. Ask your service coordinator for the next date, or find one through your Regional Center's SDP page.

Build the person-centered plan

A planning process that starts from what your family member wants their life to look like, not from a menu of services. The IPP gets updated to reflect it. You can hire an independent facilitator to run this, and the cost can come out of the SDP budget.

Get the individual budget

The Regional Center calculates it from what your family member's current services cost, or would cost. This number is the heart of SDP: it is your family's to direct, and you can see all of it.

Write the spending plan

The budget gets allocated line by line: coaching hours, community supports, respite, transportation, the facilitator, the financial management service. Starting August 2026, Regional Centers certify spending plans, so build yours with your coordinator rather than around them.

Choose a Financial Management Service (FMS)

The FMS is required. It pays your providers, handles payroll and taxes if you employ support staff directly, and keeps the budget honest. You pick from a list of approved vendors; the fee comes from the budget.

Start, then adjust

Services begin and the plan is yours to revise as life changes. Most families adjust the spending plan within the first year. Plan for the whole process to take three to six months from orientation to first services.

SDP and Life-Sharing

Where a supportive roommate fits a spending plan

For families using SDP to build a life outside the family home, the living question is usually the hardest line in the plan. Life-sharing answers it with one matched, vetted roommate instead of scheduled staff: the rent side comes from the person's own income, and the daily support side is the kind of service a spending plan exists to fund.

SDP families choose their own providers, which means specialized life-sharing vendors like Homies are available to you regardless of vendor lists. The right sequence: raise it with your facilitator while the spending plan is still being written, and talk to the provider early so the support is shaped to fit. We're happy to be part of that conversation with no commitment.

How Life-Sharing Works

Abby and Katie, matched roommates through Homies

Heads up: the rules tighten in August 2026

Under AB 143, Regional Centers begin certifying SDP spending plans and evaluating cost-effectiveness on August 1, 2026. Plans built collaboratively with your service coordinator will clear this easily; plans built around them may not. If you're considering SDP, this is a reason to start the orientation and planning process sooner rather than later.

Self-Determination Program: frequently asked questions

Direct answers for families weighing the switch.

Keep planning

What Happens to My Adult Child When I'm Gone?

The succession planning guide: every California living option compared, plus the legal steps that protect your child.

Read article

Life-Sharing in California

One matched, vetted roommate in a real home. How the model works and who it fits.

Read article

How Homies Works

The full process from first call to move-in, with timelines and what to expect.

Read article

Building a spending plan and weighing the living question?

A free call with our team. We'll talk through whether life-sharing fits your person and your plan, and we'll tell you honestly if it doesn't.

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