Stephanie Eppert and her daughter, Jessie, celebrated with a rare treat of ice cream last fall when news arrived that overtime and the minimum wage would be paid to in-home health-care workers.But the celebration was short-lived. Eppert — a single mother who takes care of her daughter, who has Down syndrome – Read more 

When Mazen and Holly Baayoun needed day care for their 2-year-old daughter, they wrote three pages of questions for staff at the facilities they visited. They wanted to know not only about the curriculum and recent accidents, but also how far the fire department is from the facility. In the end, they chose Sierra School in Santa Clarita, California, for its strong academic focus.

Less than two months later, the Baayouns’ daughter had a black eye when they picked her up at school. Read more.

Adding to confusion about the roots of autism, new research suggests that varying genes are often re- sponsible for the disorder even among siblings who share a diagnosis.

Kids who have an older bother or sister with autism are known to be at higher risk for the developmental disorder and scientists have thought this heightened occurrence was due to shared genes. Read more.

California’s Medi-Cal program has grown to cover nearly half of the state’s children, causing policymakers and child advocates to question the ability of the taxpayer-funded program to adequately serve so many poor kids.

In the past two years alone, the program has added nearly 1 million young people up to age 20, including those newly eligible for Medi-Cal coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The increase brings the total number of young people on Medi-Cal to 5.2 million, more than ever before. Read more.

The recently closed Lanterman Developmental Center could go from the control of the state’s Department of Developmental Services to that of Cal Poly Pomona.

According to the 2015-2016 Governor’s Budget Summary, the 302-acre Lanterman property would be transferred to Cal Poly for academic purposes and to expand its Innovation Village development. Read more.

Per amendment to the Lanterman Act (Section 4519.5 of the Welfare and Institutions Code), all regional centers are required to provide a report of our expenditures across identified demographic groups (e.g., by disability, by age, by race or ethnicity, or by language) and to hold a public meeting with stakeholders regarding the data- dates to be announced in January.

NBRC collaborates with the Department of Developmental Services to prepare this report. We encourage you to keep limitations to this report in mind when reviewing the data.

For example:
• Due to limitations in the statewide Uniform Fiscal System, not all expenditures can be reflected in this report.
• It also does not include authorized expenditures for services which have been provided but have not yet been billed
• This report does not reflect services in Individual/Family Service Plans that are funded by MediCal,  health plans, etc

For more information,  view the data for 2015 here, or see our Transparency page here.