4622. (Amended by Stats. 2026, Ch. 80, Sec. 29.)

(a) (1) The governing board shall be composed of no more than 17 individuals with demonstrated interest in, or knowledge of, developmental disabilities.

(2) Any existing member of the governing board as of December 31, 2027, in excess of the 17-member limit in paragraph (1) shall be permitted to complete no more than 12 months of their remaining term beyond that date if the existing member is compliant with subdivision (f).

(b) Effective January 1, 2028, membership of the governing board, as a whole, shall possess at least two years of experience in all of the following topics:

(1) California law.

(2) Management of a medium or large organization.

(3) Board governance, as evidenced by experience serving on the board of an entity that is not a regional center.

(4) Fiscal or financial subjects.

(5) Developmental disability programs, including program administration, service provision, or policy advocacy.

(c) The governing board shall reflect the geographic, disability, and ethnic characteristics of the area served by the regional center.

(d) A minimum of 50 percent of the members of the governing board shall be persons with developmental disabilities or their family members or legal guardians. No less than 25 percent of the members of the governing board shall be persons with developmental disabilities who are receiving regional center services.

(e) Members of the governing board shall not be permitted to serve more than seven years within each eight-year period.

(f) (1) Effective January 1, 2028, all members of the governing board, prior to assuming or continuing their role and annually thereafter to maintain their role, shall complete trainings provided by or approved by the department. The training shall be implemented following consultation with the community, including the State Council on Developmental Disabilities. Training topics shall include, but are not limited to, the following:

(A) Board management and operations, including the following:

(ii) Bylaws.

(iii) Organization structure.

(iv) Roles and responsibilities.

(v) Policies, including whistle-blower policies and protections.

(vi) Fiduciary responsibilities.

(vii) Conflicts of interest.

(viii) Robert’s Rules of Order or other comparable boardsmanship rules.

(B) Ethics.

(C) Regional center contract requirements.

(D) Obligations of the governing board as outlined in this section, including training, annual evaluation of the executive director, and review of the performance of the regional center.

(E) Legal requirements for open meetings.

(F) Catchment description and demographic information.

(G) Service access and equity issues, including, but not limited to, purchase of service information and equity measures established by the department.

(H) Overviews of the programs and services under the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act (Division 4.5 (commencing with Section 4500)) and early start program under Title 14 (commencing with Section 95000) of the Government Code.

(2) The annual continuing training required by paragraph (1) may be shorter than the initial training for new board members, as determined by the department following consultation with regional centers.

(3) The department shall issue a directive to regional centers regarding training requirements and the approved training curriculum necessary to comply with this section no later than February 1, 2027.

(4) Effective January 1, 2028, governing board members who do not meet the training requirements specified in paragraphs (1) and (2) shall not participate in meetings and decisions of the governing board until they complete the required training.

(5) As part of its monitoring responsibility, the department shall review the training and support provided to board members pursuant to this subdivision to verify that it enables maximum understanding and participation by board members.

(6) Each regional center shall post on its internet website information regarding the training provided to board members

(g) (1) Whenever possible, materials and information provided to board members shall be in plain language so that a member can understand their responsibilities and exercise appropriate oversight as board members of the regional center.

(2) The regional center shall provide individualized supports and reasonable accommodations to every member of the governing board so each person can fully and effectively participate in board discussions and decisions. The regional center shall designate an employee responsible for coordinating requested supports and accommodations and providing accessible materials and meetings. Supports and accommodations may include, but are not limited to, pre-meeting preparation, communication supports, assistive technology, accessible formats, interpretations, facilitation, captioning, and other assistance or modifications as needed.

(3) If a board member does not feel adequately supported to effectively participate in board meetings, the board member may contact the department’s regional center liaison assigned to that regional center with those concerns.

(h) (1) The governing board shall appoint an advisory group composed of persons with lived experiences with intellectual and developmental disabilities representing the various categories of disability served by the regional center. The advisory group shall subsequently designate two of its members to serve on the governing board. The group shall also designate a family member or legal guardian of a person with a developmental or intellectual disability, of its members, to serve on the governing board. These designees shall have renewable terms not to exceed two years, and are subject to subdivisions (e) and (f).

(2) The governing board shall include at least one of the designees identified in paragraph (1) as a voting member of the governing board’s committee that recruits, screens, and recommends approval of applicants seeking to join the regional center’s governing board.

(i) The governing board shall appoint an advisory committee composed of a wide variety of persons representing the various categories of providers from which the regional center purchases client services. The advisory committee shall provide advice, guidance, recommendations, and technical assistance to the regional center board in order to assist the regional center in carrying out its mandated functions. The advisory committee shall designate one of its members to serve as a member of the regional center board.

(j) (1) The governing board shall annually review the performance of the executive director of the regional center. The evaluations shall be based upon the executive director’s leadership on, but not be limited to, the following:

(A) The regional center’s compliance with the objectives of its contract with the department.

(B) Compliance with required audits, and progress in addressing any findings identified in prior and most recent audits.

(C) Improving the regional center’s status on regional center performance measures.

(2) These evaluations shall provide clear future expectations to the executive director.

(3) The governing board shall also annually review the performance of the regional center in providing services that are linguistically and culturally appropriate and may provide recommendations to the executive director of the regional center based on the results of that review. The governing board’s review may include, but is not limited to, the following:

(A) The effectiveness of the regional center’s efforts to address equity in access to and expenditures on services, inclusive of equity measures published by the department, and on efforts to improve language access to information.

(B) The regional center’s data regarding the number of timely translations of individual program plans, as described in paragraphs (6) and (7) of subdivision (a) of Section 4519.5.

(C) Assessment of the regional center’s website accessibility rating, relative to the federal requirements in Section 441.313 of Title 42 of the Code of Federal Regulations.

(D) The regional center’s responsiveness to a range of community needs and concerns, including, but not limited to, intake and assessment timelines, person-centeredness, timeliness and accuracy of payments to service providers, equity including statewide equity measures, the unique needs of populations involved with the justice or child welfare systems or who have cooccurring conditions, and coordination with local entities that provide generic services.

(E) Other issues, as identified by the community during public meetings.

(k) No member of the board who is an employee or member of the governing board of a provider from which the regional center purchases client services shall do any of the following:

(1) Serve as an officer of the board.

(2) Vote on any fiscal matter affecting the purchase of services from any regional center provider.

(3) Vote on any issue other than as described in paragraph (2), in which the member has a financial interest, as defined in Section 87103 of the Government Code, and as further determined by the regional center board. The member shall provide a list of the member’s financial interests, as defined in Section 87103, to the regional center board.

(l) Nothing in this section shall prevent the appointment to a regional center governing board of a person who meets the criteria for more than one of the categories listed above.

(m) (1) Each governing board shall adopt an anti-retaliation policy to protect board members and regional center employees from retaliation. For purposes of this article, “retaliation” means any adverse action, threat, intimidation, coercion, or harassment because a person is acting within the scope of their responsibilities.

(2) The department shall provide all governing boards a model policy for this purpose. Any amendments to the model policy sought by an individual governing board shall not become effective before first being approved by the department.

(3) The department shall designate an employee to answer questions about this policy and receive allegations of retaliation pursuant to this policy. The department shall investigate those allegations and shall require appropriate corrective action to be taken for substantiated allegations.

(n) Notwithstanding Chapter 3.5 (commencing with Section 11340) of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code, the department may implement, interpret, or make specific through written directives the changes made to this section by legislation enacted in the 2025-26 legislative session. These directives shall be operative until final regulations are effective, which shall be no later than September 30, 2029.