California Regional Center Spending Report

The Individual Program Plan, or IPP, is the document that lists every service a Regional Center agrees to pay for. A family can ask for it in its own language. The state gives a Regional Center 45 days for a language spoken by at least 5% of the people receiving its services, like Spanish, and 60 days for any other language.

In 2024-25, 5,543 of the 12,540 translations in a common language (44%) took longer than 45 days, at the 18 Regional Centers that reported figures. Spanish made up 87% of the requests, and 45% of Spanish translations came late.

Centers varied widely. South Central Los Angeles finished 80% of its 3,393 translations late, Lanterman 71% and North Los Angeles County 69%. Kern was late on 3%. Harbor reported none late out of 2,194, down from 29% late the year before, and San Andreas reported none late out of 447.

Each Regional Center reports these figures to the state itself. Eastern Los Angeles, Golden Gate and Inland sent no translation figures for 2024-25, and Alta California, which serves 36,660 people, reported no requests at all. Translations into other languages, which get 60 days, came late 37 times out of 233.

The state first published translation timeliness in its 2023-24 reports. That year, 3,333 of 7,756 translations (43%) came late, at the 12 centers that reported.

Regional Centers spend less per person on Hispanic clients than on white clients. The Los Angeles Times reported the gap in 2011, and Public Counsel has tracked it since. Its 2022 report found the gap had widened at 17 of the 21 centers over six years, despite a $66 million state effort to close it. The 2024-25 figures show where the gap starts.

Under age 3, the years of the Early Start program, the two groups are close: $6,890 spent per Hispanic child and $6,708 per white child, with $10,814 and $11,275 approved. From age 3 to 21, Hispanic clients had $14,235 approved per person, against $22,638 for white clients (37% less), and $8,579 spent, against $11,669 (26% less).

The gap starts with what gets approved, not with what families use. Statewide, Hispanic families used 60.3% of what was approved for them and white families 51.5%, and Hispanic families used the larger share at 14 of the 21 centers. Among clients living with family, Hispanic clients still had 32% less approved ($13,637 against $20,034).

It holds everywhere. All 21 Regional Centers approved less per Hispanic client aged 3 to 21 than per white client, and all 21 spent less. Statewide, a Hispanic client got 74 cents for every dollar spent on a white client. By center, the figure ran from 42 cents at North Bay to 91 cents at Far Northern.

By primary language, Spanish-speaking clients aged 3 to 21 had $8,935 spent per person, against $9,701 for English speakers. Fewer of them had no paid service at all: 19%, against 26%.

From July 2009 to June 2021, state law barred Regional Centers, with narrow exceptions, from paying for camp, social recreation and some other services. When the state restored them, it told the centers that their outreach “must consider actions that will increase awareness and facilitate the sharing of information with non-English speaking individuals and communities of color.”

In 2024-25, 2.3% of white clients aged 3 to 21 (1,181 people) had camp approved, against 0.5% of Hispanic clients (617), nearly five times the rate. For social recreation, the rates were 14.3% and 9.6%.

How much a client gets depends heavily on which Regional Center serves them. For clients aged 3 to 21, Westside spent $17,897 per person in 2024-25. Central Valley spent $5,071, and San Diego $5,793. Statewide, the figure was $9,632.

Prices don't explain the difference. The state sets what Regional Centers pay providers for each service, with small adjustments by region. Under the rates that took effect in January 2025, an hour of in-home respite from an agency paid $35.66 at Westside and $35.27 at Central Valley. Across all 264 rate lines, Central Valley's median rate is 2% below Westside's.

Inside Los Angeles County, Westside, Eastern Los Angeles, Lanterman and South Central Los Angeles have identical rates for every service. Their spending per client aged 3 to 21 ran from $9,375 at South Central Los Angeles to $17,897 at Westside, 1.9 times as much. The difference starts with approvals: Westside approved $35,807 per client, and South Central Los Angeles $12,029.

Centers that approve more also leave more unused. Across the 21 centers, the more a center approved per client aged 3 to 21, the smaller the share it spent (correlation −0.49). Westside spent 50% of what it approved, and South Central Los Angeles 78%.

These are raw averages, as the state publishes them. They aren't adjusted for differences in age, diagnosis or living situation between centers.

Approval isn't the same as help. In 2024-25, Regional Centers approved $19.06 billion in services and spent $12.77 billion, or 67%. The other $6.29 billion was never used. A year earlier, $4.86 billion went unused. Approvals grew 26% in a year, and the unused amount grew 29%.

The shortfall is widest for people who live with family. They used 59% of what was approved for them, against 80% for people in licensed group homes. Clients aged 3 to 21 living at home used 54.5%, about 55 cents of each approved dollar.

The state's figures can't say why a service went unused. California's State Auditor asked families who use respite, the paid break for caregivers, in a 2022 survey. Nearly 70% of those who hit a barrier named the same top problem: a “lack of available respite workers for the times needed.” The auditor also found that about 21% of families approved for respite used none of it in a typical year.

The Los Angeles Times reported in 2024, using figures from the Association of Regional Center Agencies, that the centers had recently spent roughly two-thirds of what they authorized. Money left unspent goes back to the state: more than $978 million in the budget year that ended in mid-2022.

66,618 of the 269,992 Regional Center clients aged 3 to 21 (24.7%) had no service paid for by their center during 2024-25, including 46,402 of 173,684 autistic clients (26.7%). A year earlier, the share was 28.6%.

Some of these clients get what they need from school, Medi-Cal or IHSS, and the state's figures can't tell them apart from families waiting for a service to start. The share ran from 13% at South Central Los Angeles to 38% at East Bay.