Changing Your Spending Plan Mid-Year

A spending plan is not locked for the year. Needs change, providers change, and wages go up. Here is when a Self-Determination Program (SDP) spending plan needs a formal change, who has to be involved, and why the payment side always lags the paperwork.

When a spending plan needs to change

As of 2026, the spending plan is the document attached to the Individual Program Plan (IPP) that lists each service, how often it is delivered, what it costs, and which uniform budget category it falls in. When any of those four things changes in a way that moves money, the plan needs to be revised. Common triggers:

• A new need. A service that was not on the plan, such as adding respite after a change at home.
• A wage increase. Raising a caregiver's hourly rate changes the cost line. Minimum-wage increases are the example the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) itself uses.
• A one-time purchase. Equipment or a home modification that was not on the original plan. See One-Time Purchases and Next Year's Budget.
• Moving money between categories. Fewer hours of one service, more of another.

One thing that usually does not require a revised plan: replacing one provider with another for the same service, at the same cost, in the same category. The plan describes the provider type and qualifications, not the person's name. Tell your Financial Management Service (FMS) anyway, because the new provider has to be onboarded before they can be paid.

Who is involved

• You and the participant decide what should change.
• The service coordinator (SC) at the regional center, or your independent facilitator (IF) if you use one, helps write the revision. The IF role is optional; the service coordinator can do it.
• The regional center reviews the revised plan the same way it reviewed the original: is the service federally eligible under the SDP waiver, is it available from a generic resource instead, does the provider meet the qualifications, and did the participant choose it.
• The FMS updates its system after the regional center approves. The FMS does not approve or deny services. That is the regional center's job.

If the change is large enough that the individual budget itself needs to move, that is a separate step. The IPP team can adjust the budget up or down when needs, circumstances or resources change. As of July 2025 DDS says this explicitly. A budget adjustment and a spending plan revision often travel together, but they are two decisions. See Individual Budget vs. Spending Plan.

What a revision cannot do

• It cannot push the total above the individual budget. If the new total is higher than the budget, the budget has to be adjusted first, or something else on the plan has to come down.
• It cannot add a service that a generic agency is responsible for. In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Medi-Cal and school districts come first. IHSS is a separate program from SDP.
• It cannot add a service that is not federally eligible under the SDP waiver. See What an SDP Budget Can and Cannot Pay For.
• It cannot take effect before it is approved. Nobody can spend against a plan that has not been reviewed.

Timing: why payments lag the paperwork

This is the part that catches families. A revised plan goes through several hands before a single payment changes:

1. You and the SC or IF write the revision.
2. The regional center reviews and approves it, and issues or updates authorizations to match.
3. The approved plan and the authorizations reach the FMS.
4. The FMS updates the service codes, categories and rates in its system.
5. Payroll and vendor payments start reflecting the change.

Payments cannot reflect a change until step 3 has happened. A caregiver raise that was agreed verbally but is not yet in an approved plan and authorization is still the old rate on payday. A new vendor added to the plan cannot be paid until their own paperwork is in as well. See How Caregiver Payroll Works and Paying Vendors Under SDP.

Plan for the gap. If a change needs to be in place by a certain date, start the conversation with the service coordinator well ahead of it. Your regional center may set its own deadlines for revisions.

How Sentinel Four handles this

• Tell your dedicated case manager as soon as a change is in motion, even before it is approved. We can flag what paperwork will be needed and check the remaining funds in the affected category.
• Once the regional center approves the revision, send the signed plan and updated authorizations to your case manager. We remap the affected lines to service codes and categories in the portal.
• We validate every invoice and timesheet against service codes, rates, dates and authorizations. A payment that does not match the approved plan is held until it does, not guessed at.
• Payroll is weekly, paid on Mondays. Ask your case manager which pay period a rate change will first appear in once we have the approved plan and authorization.
• Your monthly report in the portal shows the revised allocation and what remains. See Reading Your Budget in the Portal.