Bill > A305

Introduced Session

This bill expands the membership and responsibilities of the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Specifically, the bill amends section 3 of P.L.1979, c.105 (C.30:1AA-3) to increase the number of State agency representatives on the council, to eight, to include the Commissioner of Children and Families and the Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and their Families. Current law stipulates that the council's membership consist of seven State agency representatives including, but not limited to, representatives from the Departments of Education, Health, Human Services, and Labor and Workforce Development. The bill amends section 8 of P.L.1979, c.105 (C.30:1AA-8) to expand the State council's responsibility to include activities to assist the Children's System of Care (CSOC) in the Department of Children and Families to identify and analyze gaps in services provided by the CSOC to children and youth, under the age of 21, with disabilities, and how the implementation of the New Jersey Autism State Plan Amendment could help address those gaps in services. The council would contract with a community-based agency to identify and analyze the gaps in services and prepare a report with recommendations to address the gaps in services . The agency selected by the council to identify and analyze the gaps in services would: have experience with, and in-depth knowledge in, providing services to children and youth with developmental disabilities; have an understanding of the regulations, laws, policies, and procedures governing the CSOC; and seek input from children and youth with disabilities and their families, advocacy groups, community-based service providers, behavioral health care providers, care management organizations, mobile response services programs, family support organizations, the Division of Child Protection and Permanency in the Department of Children and Families, county inter-agency coordinating councils, and residential treatment and licensed health care facilities. The bill's provisions amend section 8 of P.L.1979, c.105 (C.30:1AA-8) to expand the State council's responsibility to include activities to assist the Division of Medical Assistance and Health Services (DMAHS) in the Department of Human Services and the CSOC in making recommendations on the implementation of the New Jersey Autism State Plan Amendment, and to allow the council to seek the input of advocacy groups, community-based service providers, behavioral health care providers, care management organizations, mobile response services programs, family support organizations, and other agencies and organizations that provide services to children and families in order to make recommendations on the implementation of the State Plan Amendment Presently, the State council is required to participate in activities that contribute to a coordinated, consumer- and family-centered and consumer- and family-directed comprehensive system which includes needed community services, individualized supports and other forms of assistance that promote self-determination for individuals with developmental disabilities and their families. The law does not specify that the council's activities include: assisting the CSOC to identify and analyze gaps in services provided to children and youth, under the age of 21, with disabilities and how the implementation of the New Jersey Autism State Plan Amendment could help address those gaps; assisting the DMAHS in making recommendations on the implementation of the New Jersey Autism State Plan Amendment; and seeking the input of advocacy groups, community-based service providers, behavioral health care providers, care management organizations, mobile response services programs, family support organizations, and other agencies and organizations that provide services to children and families in order to make recommendations on the implementation of the State Plan Amendment The bill also amends section 8 of P.L.1979, c.105 (C.30:1AA-8) to require that the annual report prepared by the council be transmitted to the Departments of Children and Families, Health, and Human Services, and that the report contain recommendations on how to address the gaps in services provided by the CSOC to children and youth, under the age of 21, with disabilities. Current law requires that the annual report be transmitted only to the Department of Health, and for the report to contain information about the progress made by the council in achieving the purpose set forth in section 1 of P.L.2003, c.54 (C.30:1AA-1.1).

Committee Categories

Michele Matsikoudis (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document