SDP Enrollment: From Orientation to Your First Payment

Enrolling in California's Self-Determination Program (SDP) is a sequence of steps set by the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), and each one gates the next. You cannot get a budget before orientation, or a spending plan before a budget, or a paycheck before a Financial Management Service (FMS) has authorizations. Here is the sequence in plain words, as of 2026.

Who can enroll

SDP has been open to every eligible regional center consumer since July 1, 2021. Eligibility means a developmental disability as defined in Welfare and Institutions Code section 4512, and agreeing to attend orientation, use an FMS, manage services within your budget, and buy only federally eligible services that a generic agency does not already provide. You cannot be living in a licensed long-term care facility, with a 90-day transition exception. Some children under three qualify; children who receive only Early Start do not. The program is voluntary, and you can leave it at any time.

Step 1: Tell your service coordinator

Your regional center service coordinator is the entry point. Say you want to enroll in SDP. Every regional center also has a Participant Choice Specialist, a regional center staff member dedicated to the program, and your service coordinator can connect you.

Step 2: Orientation

Orientation is required before anything else. As of April 1, 2026, the State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD) is the only approved statewide orientation provider. Sessions are on Zoom in multiple languages; the schedule is at scdd.ca.gov/sdp-orientation/. Orientation explains the program's rules, the FMS models and your responsibilities. Keep your completion record; the regional center will ask for it.

Step 3: Person-centered planning and the IPP

Your Individual Program Plan (IPP) is still required in SDP. It is the regional center document that states your needs and the services that meet them. A separate person-centered plan is optional. It is a planning process, often led by an independent facilitator, that puts your goals in your own words and shapes what goes into the IPP. Regional centers help pay for initial person-centered planning.

If you want an independent facilitator, choose one here. There is no certification requirement today, and your service coordinator can perform the same functions if you prefer. See who does what in SDP.

Step 4: The individual budget

The individual budget is the amount of money available for your services for the year. Your IPP team sets it. For someone already receiving regional center services, it is based on purchase-of-service spending in the most recent 12 months. For a new consumer, it is built from the regional center's average costs for the services identified in the IPP. The budget cannot exceed what those services would cost outside SDP.

The budget is not fixed for life. It can be adjusted up or down when your needs, circumstances or resources change; DDS has said explicitly, as of July 2025, that minimum-wage increases are such a change. One-time purchases, such as a ramp, may be excluded from the next year's calculation so they do not become a permanent line. See individual budget vs spending plan.

Step 5: The spending plan

The spending plan is how you will use the budget: which services, how often, at what cost, sorted into the uniform budget categories DDS uses. Its total cannot exceed the budget. It is attached to the IPP. It must identify the type and qualifications of each provider even if you have not picked the person yet.

The regional center reviews the spending plan for four things: whether each service is federally eligible, whether a generic resource such as In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Medi-Cal or the school district should provide it instead, whether the providers are qualified, and whether the plan reflects your choice. This review is where plans get sent back for edits, so build it with your service coordinator or independent facilitator rather than alone. How do spending plans work goes deeper, and what an SDP budget can and cannot pay for covers the eligibility rules.

Step 6: Choose your FMS

The FMS is the only vendored service SDP requires. It must be DDS-certified and vendored by a regional center. Since July 1, 2022 the regional center pays the FMS cost outside your individual budget, so choosing an FMS does not reduce the money available for services. DDS says to interview more than one. The three models are Bill Payer, Co-Employer and Sole Employer; how to choose an FMS explains the questions to ask.

Choose while the spending plan is being written. The FMS needs the signed, approved plan and matching regional center authorizations before it can pay anyone, and its onboarding takes time.

Step 7: Start, and the first payment

Once the regional center authorizes the services and the FMS has finished onboarding, your start date arrives. Caregivers begin work and record their hours. Vendors send invoices. The FMS validates each against the spending plan and authorizations and pays. Your first payment, whether a caregiver's paycheck or a vendor's remittance, follows the FMS's payroll and payment cycle. From then on, the FMS sends a monthly expenditure report showing what was allocated, what was spent in the last 30 days and what remains.

How Sentinel Four handles this

We accept direct referrals from service coordinators and independent facilitators with a draft spending plan, so the consultation can begin while Step 5 is still in progress. A signed and approved spending plan must reach us by the 10th of the month before the intended start date, with authorizations in place the week before; your regional center may set its own deadline on top of that. Onboarding usually takes two to three weeks, with enrollment documents signed through DocuSign and a dedicated case manager assigned from the first conversation. Payroll is weekly, with paydays every Monday, and your budget is visible in the portal before the first payment. Your first 30 days with Sentinel Four covers the details.