Racial disparities persist at California regional centers for disabled kids, report says
LOS ANGELES — Racial and ethnic gaps in spending on services for California children and teens with developmental disabilities have persisted, despite California investing tens of millions of dollars in efforts to address such disparities, a new report has found.
The report, released Wednesday by the legal advocacy group Public Counsel, found that at most of the California regional centers, which assist developmentally disabled people across the state, spending inequities had worsened for Latino youth during the last budget year. Even as that gap narrowed statewide, it was widening at many individual centers.
Despite long-standing awareness of the problem, "we still have a system of separate and unequal services for children with disabilities," said Sharon Balmer Cartagena, directing attorney of the Children's Rights Project at Public Counsel.
The report also found that as the COVID-19 pandemic dragged on, a growing number of young people
