(a) The Legislature declares that it places a high priority on providing opportunities for adults with developmental disabilities to live with families approved by family home agencies and to receive services and supports in those settings as determined by the individual program plan. Family home agencies may offer services and supports in family homes or family teaching homes. All requirements of this section and Sections 4689.2 to 4689.6, inclusive, shall apply to a family home and a family teaching home.

(b) For purposes of this section, “family home” means a home that is owned, leased, or rented by, and is the family residence of, the family home provider or providers, and in which services and supports are provided to a maximum of two adults with developmental disabilities regardless of their degree of disability, and who do not require continuous skilled nursing care.

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(c) For purposes of this section, “family teaching home” means a home that is owned, leased, or rented by the family home agency wherein the family home provider and the individual have independent residences, either contiguous or attached, and in which services and supports are provided to a maximum of three adults with developmental disabilities regardless of their degree of disability, and who do not require continuous skilled nursing care.

(d) For purposes of this section, “family home agency” means a private for-profit or not-for-profit agency that is vendored to do all of the following:

(1) Recruit, approve, train, and monitor family home providers.

(2) Provide social services and in-home support to family home providers.

(3) Assist adults with developmental disabilities in moving into approved family homes.

(e) For purposes of ensuring that regional centers may secure high-quality services that provide supports in natural settings and promote inclusion and meaningful participation in community life for adults with developmental disabilities, the department shall promulgate regulations for family home agencies, family teaching homes, and family homes that shall include, but not be limited to, standards and requirements related to all of the following:

(1) Selection criteria for regional centers to apply in vendoring family home agencies, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(A) The need for service.

(B) The experience of the agency or key personnel in providing the same or comparable services.

(C) The reasonableness of the agency’s overhead.

(D) The capability of the regional center to monitor and evaluate the vendor.

(2) Vendorization.

(3) Operation of family home agencies, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(A) Recruitment.

(B) Approval of family homes.

(C) Qualifications, training, and monitoring of family home providers.

(D) Assistance to consumers in moving into approved family homes.

(E) The range of services and supports to be provided.

(F) Family home agency staffing levels, qualifications, and training.

(4) Program design.

(5) Program and consumer records.

(6) Family homes.

(7) Rates of payment for family home agencies and approved family home providers. Regional center reimbursement to family home agencies for services in a family home shall not exceed rates established pursuant to subdivision (b) of Section 4681.5 for individuals who reside in a community care facility, as defined in § 1502 of the Health and Safety Code, that is vendored for four beds or fewer.

(8) The department and regional center’s monitoring and evaluation of the family home agency and approved homes, which shall be designed to ensure that services do all of the following:

(A) Conform to applicable laws and regulations and provide for the consumer’s health and well-being.

(B) Assist the consumer in understanding and exercising their individual rights.

(C) Are consistent with the family home agency’s program design and the consumer’s individual program plan.

(D) Maximize the consumer’s opportunities to have choices in where the consumer lives, works, and socializes.

(E) Provide a supportive family home environment, available to the consumer 24 hours per day, that is clean, comfortable, and accommodating to the consumer’s cultural preferences, values, and lifestyle.

(F) Are satisfactory to the consumer, as indicated by the consumer’s quality of life as assessed by the consumer, their family, and, if appointed, conservator, or significant others, or all of these, as well as by evaluation of outcomes relative to individual program plan objectives.

(9) Monthly monitoring visits by family home agency social service staff to approved family homes and family teaching homes.

(10) Procedures whereby the regional center and the department may enforce applicable provisions of law and regulation, investigate allegations of abuse or neglect, and impose sanctions on family home agencies and approved family homes and family teaching homes, including, but not limited to, all of the following:

(A) Requiring movement of a consumer from a family home under specified circumstances.

(B) Termination of approval of a family home or family teaching home.

(C) Termination of the family home agency’s vendorization.

(11) Appeal procedures.

(f) Each adult with developmental disabilities placed in a family home or family teaching home shall have the rights specified in this division, including, but not limited to, the rights specified in Section 4503.

(g) Prior to placement in a family home of an adult with developmental disabilities who has a conservator, consent of the conservator shall be obtained.

(h) The adoption of any emergency regulations to implement this section that are filed with the Office of Administrative Law within one year of the date on which the act that added this section took effect shall be deemed to be an emergency and necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health and safety, or general welfare.

(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 44, Sec. 22. (AB 121) Effective July 10, 2023.)