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[DATE]

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

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

Dear Senator Hurtado:

[ORGANIZATION] writes to express our strong support for SB 1092 (Hurtado), the Equitable Access to Services Act, which will make the administrative hearing process for intellectually and developmentally disabled people and their families more accessible, equitable, and fair.  

[Brief description of your organization and interest in the bill.]

The barriers and inequities built into the current administrative hearing process have left too many intellectually and developmentally disabled people and their families, particularly in the Latinx community, feeling intimidated and powerless when they disagree with their regional center. A November 2021 report, Unfair Hearings: How People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Lack Access to Justice in California, cites significant flaws in the way decisions are made and the dispute resolution process works. These flaws include: 1) a decision-making process made behind closed doors that does not meaningfully include the person served; 2) few incentives for regional centers to settle disputes in mediations and informal meetings that precede administrative hearings; 3) an unlevel playing field where regional centers frequently hire lawyers to represent them at administrative hearings against unrepresented claimants; 4) an appeal process that is out of reach to anyone who cannot afford a lawyer; and 5) no meaningful oversight over the hearing process.

SB 1092 will ensure that people intellectually and developmentally disabled people and their families, particularly people of color, can meaningfully participate in decisions about the services they receive, and in hearings about those services, regardless of their race, ethnicity, English proficiency, or ability to afford legal counsel by:

•	Moving hearings from the Office of Administrative Hearings to the Department of Social Services, where the hearing process is easier to navigate, and where hearings are conducted in a more informal and accessible manner.
•	Requiring regional centers to participate in mediation.
•	Only allowing regional centers to hire a lawyer to represent them at a fair hearing if the individual served is also represented by a lawyer.
•	Allowing people who win their fair hearing to recover compensatory services or retroactive reimbursement as a remedy for past violations.
•	Giving people one year to appeal a hearing decision to superior court and the right to recover attorney’s fees if they win their appeal.
•	Requiring the Department of Developmental Services to monitor and enforce regional center compliance with hearing decisions.
•	Establishing a fair hearing advisory committee that allows people served by regional centers and their families to have input into the hearing process and training of hearing officers.
•	Clarifying that people served by regional centers can pursue civil rights or personal injury actions in state or federal court, without having to first go through the fair hearing process.

This bill presents a historic opportunity to reimagine the way the regional center hearing process works for those who have historically felt the least empowered in it – one where the balance of power is less skewed; where people have a meaningful voice in the decisions that affect their lives; where informal dispute resolution is incentivized over adversarial quasi-judicial proceedings; where the system feels open and helpful to people who represent themselves; and where people feel treated with dignity and respect.

We are pleased to support SB 1092 and respectfully request your AYE vote.

Sincerely, 

[Name, Title]

cc:	Members and Staff, Senate Human Services Committee