Legal Rights and Responsibilities of People with Developmental Disabilities
What's On This Page
Client & Family Services Quick Links
- The Lanterman Act
- Working Together in Partnership
- Person Centered Planning
- Resolving Disagreements
- Your Legal Rights
- Receiving Quality and Effective Services and Supports
- Early Start – Birth to 3 Years
- Provisional Eligibility – Birth to 5 Years
- Transitioning from Early Childhood Services
Your Rights
People with developmental disabilities have the same basic rights and responsibilities as all other legal residents of the United States and the state of California. California law also gives people with developmental disabilities some additional special rights.
These rights include:
- A right to treatment and habilitation services and supports in the least restrictive environment. These services and supports should foster the developmental potential of the person and be directed toward the achievement of the most independent, productive, normal life possible. Such services shall protect the personal liberty of the individual, and shall be provided with the least restrictive conditions necessary.
- A right to dignity, privacy and humane care. To the maximum extent possible, treatment, services and supports shall be provided in natural community settings.
- A right to participate in an appropriate program of publicly supported education, regardless of degree of disability.
- A right to prompt medical care and treatment.
- A right to religious freedom and practice.
- A right to social interaction and participation in community activities.
- A right to physical exercise and recreational opportunities.
- A right to be free from harm, including unnecessary physical restraint or isolation, excessive medication, abuse or neglect.
- A right to be free from hazardous procedures.
- A right to make choices in their own lives, including, but not limited to: where and with whom they live; their relationships with people in their community; the way they spend their time, including education, employment and leisure; the pursuit of their personal future; and program planning and implementation.
- A right to have relationships, marry, be part of a family, and to parent if they so choose.
People with developmental disabilities who reside in a residential group home have additional rights:
- To wear their own clothes.
- To keep and use their own personal possessions, including toiletry articles.
- To keep and be allowed to spend a reasonable sum of their own money for personal expenses and small purchases.
- To have access to individual storage space for private use.
- To see visitors each day.
- To have reasonable access to telephones, both to make and receive confidential calls.
- To have ready access to letter writing materials, including stamps, and to mail and receive unopened correspondence.
- To refuse electroconvulsive therapy.
- To refuse behavior modification techniques which cause painor trauma.
- To refuse psychosurgery.
- To make choices in areas including, but not limited to: daily living routines, choice of companions, leisure and social activities, and program planning and implementation.
Consumer Rights Complaint Process
The law provides a formal process for dealing with a situation where you believe that Lanterman or a service provider has violated or improperly withheld a right to which your family member is entitled under the law. This process is usually called a “4731” complaint because it is described in section 4731 of the Welfare and Institution Code. If you believe such a situation exists, you should contact your service coordinator and attempt to resolve the situation.
If you cannot resolve the situation, the Consumer Rights Complaint Process exists and is to be used when an individual, or any representative acting on behalf of an individual, believes that the regional center, developmental center, or a provider, has violated or improperly withheld a right or rights to which you are entitled under the law. Under this process, you are asking that the regional center, developmental center, or provider, change its procedures for dealing with you and others in the future.
*Not to be used for disputes about eligibility for services or the nature, scope or type of services an individual is receiving – see Appeals Process.
Title 17 Complaint Procedures
This procedure is to be used when:
- One of the “personal rights” of an individual who resides in a developmental center, community care or health care facility, has been denied; and
- The consumer disagrees.