SAMPLE ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT LETTER – PUT ON LETTERHEAD
Submit the letter through the California Legislature Position Letter Portal

DATE

The Honorable Melissa Hurtado
Chair, Senate Committee on Human Services
1020 N Street, Rm. 521
Sacramento, CA 95814

RE:  SB 1092 (Hurtado) The Equitable Access to Services (EASe) Act – SUPPORT

Dear Senator Hurtado:

[Organization name] [Describe your organization] strongly supports SB 1092 (Hurtado), the Equitable Access to Services Act. [Option: add your organization’s connection to this issue.]

Many people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, especially communities of color and non-English speakers, feel powerless when they disagree with their regional center. They report that too many decisions are made behind closed doors without their voice being heard and that regional centers do not try hard enough to work out disagreements informally. They are then intimidated by the hearing process they perceive as biased, formal, and complex. They often find an unlevel playing field where regional centers have lawyers to represent them even though they do not. They encounter judges who do little to assist them in understanding the legal process, and who seem unfamiliar with changes in the law and the existence of racial disparities in the regional center system.

SB 1092 empowers people with disabilities and their families, especially people of color, in the decisions about their regional center services, and in disagreements about those services by:
•	Requiring regional centers to have the person served or their representative present when all decisions are made about their services
•	Moving hearings from the Office of Administrative Hearings to the Department of Social Services, where the process is less formal and more supportive and accessible
•	Requiring regional centers to participate in mediation
•	Allowing regional centers to hire a lawyer only when the person served also has one
•	Providing people who win at fair hearing to recover compensatory services or retroactive reimbursement as a remedy for past violations
•	Requiring the Department of Developmental Services to enforce regional center compliance with hearing decisions
•	Creating ways for people served by regional centers and their families to have input into both the hearing process and the training of administrative law judges

SB 1092 shows how that the process can be reimagined into one where people have meaningful voices in the decisions that affect their lives, feel treated with dignity and respect, and can access justice regardless of their race, ethnicity, language spoken, or ability to afford a lawyer. Our organization is pleased to strongly support SB 1092.

Sincerely,
[Signature]
[Name]
[Title]