Section 4511.1

(a) The Legislature finds and declares the following:

(1) Supporting service access and equity for persons with developmental disabilities and their families requires awareness, skill development, and training for regional center personnel.

(2) Ongoing implicit bias training enhances service access and equity in the developmental disabilities system.

(b) The department shall require regional centers to implement implicit bias training through its contracts pursuant to Section 4640.6 and shall establish course content and training frequency requirements for that training.

(c) All the regional center personnel shall comply with the implicit bias training requirements of paragraph (9) of subdivision (g) of Section 4640.6 and this section. This section shall additionally apply to regional center contractors involved in intake and assessment and eligibility determinations. The department shall specify the timelines by which training must be completed. Training shall be prioritized for regional center employees and contractors who are involved in eligibility determination or directly assist individuals and their families, or both, during the regional center intake and assessment processes, service coordination, and regional center employees who are involved in developing and implementing purchase of service policies and other policies, guidelines, instructions, or training materials utilized by regional centers when determining the service needs of consumers.

(d) The training described by this section may be procured either by the department or by a regional center that has obtained prior approval by the department. Each regional center and its contractors shall retain the training record of employees in their respective personnel files. Regional centers shall annually inform the department of the percentage of its contractors and regional center personnel, identified by job classification, who successfully have completed the training. A list and description of trainings procured by the department, or a regional center with approval by the department, shall be posted on the department’s internet website.

(e) The department or regional center shall make reasonable efforts to procure training that considers all of the following:

(1) Trainers who are representative of the diversity of persons served by regional centers.

(2) Academic training in implicit bias or experience educating public benefit programs about implicit bias and its effects on people accessing and interacting with public benefit programs.

(3) The impact of implicit bias, explicit bias, and systemic bias on public benefit programs and the effect this can have on individuals seeking eligibility for and services through public benefit programs.

(4) Actionable steps trainees can take to recognize and address their own implicit biases.

(f) The training provided by the department and required by this section shall only be implemented subject to an appropriation by the Legislature for those purposes. It is the intent of the Legislature that regional centers continue to implement implicit bias training to the extent they are able to, in the absence of a state appropriation.