SERVICE POLICY GUIDELINES
FAMILY SUPPORTS FOR SCHOOL-AGE CHILDREN AND YOUNG ADULTS
Tri-Counties Regional Center supports the hopes and preferred future(s) of persons with developmental disabilities towards maximum community inclusion and participation. Tri-Counties Regional Center will encourage and support children and/or their families in their decision regarding where the child will live. Tri-Counties Regional Center will work with children and their families to maintain school-age individuals in their family home.
All families experience the need for intermittent relief from the stress of raising a child. In many instances, families with a child with developmental disabilities will be able to provide for their own relief through the assistance of family members, friends, or paid sitters. The need for child care should not be confused with the need for family support services. All working parents of children must provide arrangements for child care that are routine and consistent with their work schedule. Tri-Counties Regional Center will assist families in locating appropriate child care arrangements.
Various community programs also serve a secondary function by providing family support services and relief to parents from the responsibility of providing 24 hour care. Such programs include public schools and local social and recreational programs. Parents are encouraged to use such programs to meet these needs whenever possible as they provide enriched experiences for individuals with developmental disabilities.
Family support services are supports and services provided to a person with developmental disabilities and his/her family that contributes to the ability of the family to reside together. Tri-Counties Regional Center encourages and supports children and their families to access existing personal and community resources whenever possible to meet their family support needs. Tri-Counties Regional Center will encourage families to use these resources before expending public resources to meet these needs. Consideration will be given to the ordinary care, support and supervision that a family must provide to a child of a similar age without a disability.
Tri-Counties Regional Center recognizes that some families with a developmentally disabled child are not able to meet all of their family support needs through traditional sources because some individuals with a developmental disability require a degree of care beyond that needed by the majority of individuals of a similar age.
The Planning Team will determine the desired family support outcomes, will identify and access all private and generic resources available to meet all or any portion of the need for family support services, and will decide which, if any, regional center funded family support services are to be used to meet any remaining need for family support services.
Individuals receiving SSI, SSA and AFDC are eligible for In-Home Support Services provided through the County Department of Social Services. When appropriate, Tri-Counties Regional Center will assist families to access these services as it could provide the family with additional resources to purchase personal care assistance for the person while providing relief to the primary care giver. Tri-Counties Regional Center will authorize funding for services required by and resulting from the child’s developmental disability. Tri-Counties Regional Center will use creative and innovative approaches to meet objectives contained in the person’s
Individual Program Plan that are a cost-effective use of public funds. Family support services for school-age individuals may be purchased when:
Family support services may include but are not limited to in-home respite care; in-home nursing care; out-of-home respite care; day care; after school programs; crisis intervention services; camping services, social recreation activities, and in some cases, certain educational services and non-medical therapies.
Tri-Counties Regional Center will assist and advocate for school-age children and young adults to acquire social skills and participation in age appropriate public and private recreational activities. Children and their families are expected to use their personal resources to pursue hobbies, leisure activities and access entertainment events. Tri-Counties Regional Center may authorize funding for the acquisition of specific skills, as well as participation in camping services and social recreation activities, when the Planning Team has determined the skills cannot be taught by the family or by public and/or generic resources.
The expected result from the provision of any family support service for school-age children and young adults must lead to measurable outcomes as stated on the person’s Individual Program Plan. The provision of family support services for school-age children must be both clinically and fiscally an effective use of public funds.
Exception Policy:
Tri-Counties Regional Center recognizes that some individual needs are so unique that they may not be addressed in this Service Policy and may require an exception. Such requests for an exception to a Service Policy will be made through the Planning Team process.
Clarification of Terms:
In-home respite care services include the provision of intermittent and/or regularly scheduled temporary care in the family home. Payment for the services may be made to an agency or to a Fiscal Management Service on behalf of an individual .
In-home nursing care services are services designed to meet the needs of the person sereved to include the protection of their medical well-being and the prevention of the need for hospitalization while, incidentally, providing relief to the primary care giver.
Out-of-home respite care services include short term placement out of the family home in a licensed respite or community care residential facility or an accredited weekend, summer or day camp if a licensed facility is not available.
Day care and after school services include programs that provide care, supervision and stimulating activities for children served. Day care and after-school services are designed to assist families to maintain a child athome by minimizing the increased cost of day care charged to families for a child with developmental disabilities beyond the cost normally associated with the care for a child of a similar age with disability. Tri-Counties Regional Center may authorize funding for the cost of day care or after-school services to the extent that they exceed the cost of providing day care to a child without a disability.
Crisis intervention services are immediate, direct, intensive, time-limited professional assistance to help a child served return to a previous level of functioning or emotional state which will support the family in maintaining him/her in the family home.
Camping services contributes to an individual’s mental physical and social growth through a creative outdoor experience. Services can be provided in a day or residential camp setting.
Social Recreation services are leisure-time activities designed to promote personal enjoyment, peer interaction, social growth, recreation, and enhancement of daily living skills within the community.
Approvals:
