HR 24
Page 1
Date of Hearing: March 13, 2025
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON RULES
Blanca Pacheco, Chair
HR 24 (Nguyen) – As Introduced March 6, 2025
SUBJECT: Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month.
SUMMARY: Recognizes the month of March 2025 as Developmental Disabilities Awareness
Month; and, salutes the self-advocates and their families who are critical to informing every
element of this system, as well as the state, of their perspectives, goals, and desires, providing an
authentic and lived experience to shape how people with developmental disabilities are served.
Specifically, this resolution makes the following legislative findings:
1) March is recognized nationwide as Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month, which
honors the progress in, and opportunities for, supporting community life for people with
developmental disabilities.
2) In 1965, the Legislature passed Assembly Bill 691 of the 1965 Regular Session, authored by
Assembly Member Waldie, with two pilot regional centers opening in 1966 to provide
community services to people with developmental disabilities, which was expanded
statewide in 1969 as the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act (Lanterman
Act).
3) Through the Lanterman Act, the state has empowered people with developmental disabilities
to lead lives of greater inclusion and self-direction in communities of their choosing for
nearly 60 years.
4) Those disabilities are defined as autism, epilepsy, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, and
conditions that are either closely related to, or require similar services as, intellectual
disability, and significantly impact the life of the individual.
5) The Lanterman Act now benefits over 430,000 individuals with developmental disabilities
and their families. Regional centers across the state and their frontline service coordinators
are lifelong connections to services that make having a good quality of life possible.
6) The daily lives of people with developmental disabilities and their families are founded on
the work of direct support professionals and over 40,000 service providers. Regional centers
and service providers continue to develop new and existing modes of service that are
culturally competent.
7) People with developmental disabilities, including self-advocates, are the most important
drivers of change in our system, which prioritizes individuals’ self-expressed needs, interests,
and goals.
8) The ways in which people with developmental disabilities thrive in the community are
changing and expanding, including through the federal Home and Community-Based
Services Final Rule, the Self-Determination Program, competitive integrated employment,
and person-centered service modalities.
 HR 24
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FISCAL EFFECT: This resolution is keyed non-fiscal by Legislative Counsel.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION:
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by: Michael Erke / RLS. / (916) 319-2800