Disability Thrive Initiative

Derek James attends classes, works two jobs and is active in a campus ministry at Kennesaw State University.

The busy 22-year-old is a third-year student in the university’s Academy for Inclusive Learning and Social Growth. Until this year, it was the only post-secondary program in Georgia for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Read More

The state legislature is offering some relief to people whose health insurance comes with a large family deductible. Assembly Bill 1305 won final approval in the legislature Thursday. It would require all family health plans to include a per-individual deductible and a per-individual out-of-pocket limit. Read more.

A special legislative session committee in the California Legislature approved a far-reaching bill on Thursday that imposes a $2-a-pack tax on cigarettes and a similar tax on electronic cigarettes, institutes a revised version of the current tax on managed care organizations, funds programs to curb tobacco use, pays for a 7% restoration in In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) hours, provides money to bolster services for the developmentally disabled and boosts pay rates for providers of those services. Read More.

Once again, California legislators are speechifying passionately about the need for more money to pay for the care of 290,000 people with intellectual disabilities served by California’s regional centers.
State government has a budget surplus once more. And yet efforts to raise rates for the care of people with autism, cerebral palsy and other severe lifelong disabilities are sputtering, needlessly. Read more.

A bill introduced on Tuesday in the Second Extraordinary Legislative Session on Health wants to levy a 5-cent tax on cocktails served in restaurants and bars in California. The proposal would raise an estimated $200 million a year for community-based services for those with developmental disabilities. Read more.

2013 California’s Employment First Policy (AB 1041) was passed and signed into law by Governor Brown. One of the requirements of that law was that the State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) develop informational material to help educate individuals and families. We are happy to provide links to both the website here and informational flyers here:  English EFC-flyerEFC     Flyer Spanish. See your Service Coordinator to have an employment goal in your IPP.

A bill that would require day care workers to be immunized against three major diseases that could harm children passed out of the Assembly Committee on Appropriations Wednesday.

It was the last committee stop for the bill, which passed the Senate and now will be up for an Assembly floor vote.

SB 792, by Sen. Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, would require vaccination for whooping cough, measles and influenza for all day care workers. Read more.