Self-Determination Glossary: 30 Terms Every Family Should Know

The Self-Determination Program (SDP) has its own vocabulary, shared between the regional center and the Financial Management Service (FMS). These are the terms families ask us about most, in the order you meet them.

The program and the agencies

• Self-Determination Program (SDP). California's option for regional center consumers to direct their own services with an individual budget. Created by SB 468 in 2013 and open to all eligible consumers since July 1, 2021. Voluntary; you can leave at any time.
• Department of Developmental Services (DDS). The state department that oversees regional centers and sets SDP rules.
• Regional center. The local agency that determines eligibility, writes your IPP, sets your budget, reviews your spending plan and authorizes services.
• Service coordinator. Your regional center contact. Writes the IPP with you and can perform the independent facilitator's functions if you do not use one.
• Participant Choice Specialist. A regional center staff member focused on SDP. Every regional center has one.
• State Council on Developmental Disabilities (SCDD). As of April 1, 2026, the only approved statewide provider of SDP orientation.
• Orientation. The required first step into SDP.

Planning documents

• Individual Program Plan (IPP). The regional center's plan of your needs and the services that meet them. Still required in SDP; the spending plan is attached to it.
• Person-centered plan. An optional separate plan built around your goals in your own words. Regional centers help pay for initial person-centered planning.
• Independent facilitator (IF). A person you choose to help with planning, the spending plan and coordinating services. Optional; no certification required today. See who does what in SDP.
• Purchase of service (POS). Regional center spending on services for you. An existing consumer's first individual budget is based on the most recent 12 months of it.
• Individual budget. The money available for your services for the year. Set by the IPP team; adjustable when needs change; cannot exceed what the services would cost outside SDP.
• Spending plan. How the budget will be used: services, frequency and cost, by budget category. The total cannot exceed the budget. See individual budget vs spending plan.
• Budget category. One of the uniform categories DDS uses to sort a spending plan. Every dollar in the plan sits in one.
• Service code. The regional center's code for a specific service type. The FMS maps each spending plan line to one.
• Authorization. The regional center's approval to pay for a specific service, amount and period. The FMS cannot pay without one.

Rules on what the budget can buy

• Federally eligible service. A service allowed under the federal waiver behind SDP. Anything outside the DDS SDP Service Definitions cannot be bought with SDP funds.
• Generic resources. Public programs that serve everyone, such as IHSS, Medi-Cal and school districts. SDP cannot pay for what a generic resource already provides.
• In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS). A separate California program that pays for in-home care. It is not part of SDP and is treated as a generic resource.
• Legally responsible person. Typically a parent of a minor child or a spouse, and in some cases a court-appointed guardian. Cannot be paid for services they would normally provide. See paying family members and legally responsible persons.
• Conservator. A person a court appoints to make decisions for an adult. A conservator parent is not a legally responsible person in the SDP sense and may be paid for qualified services.

The money side

• Financial Management Service (FMS). The DDS-certified, regional-center-vendored company that pays all your providers, runs payroll, handles tax compliance and reports on the budget. The only vendored service SDP requires. The regional center has paid for it, outside your budget, since July 1, 2022.
• Bill Payer. FMS model (service code 315) for a plan that uses only vendors and agencies; no payroll.
• Co-Employer. FMS model (code 316). You hire, schedule and supervise; the FMS is the employer for payroll, taxes, workers' compensation and compliance. The most common model.
• Sole Employer. FMS model (code 317). You are the legal employer of record; the FMS is your payroll agent.
• Vendor. A business or agency paid through the FMS. Provides a W-9 and a vendor agreement at onboarding before it can be paid.
• Employer burden. The employer's taxes, workers' compensation and paid sick leave added on top of wages. About 21% under Co-Employer and about 15% under Sole Employer at Sentinel Four. See employer burden explained.
• Workers' compensation. Insurance that covers an caregiver injured on the job. California employers carry it; under Co-Employer the FMS does.
• W-2. The year-end wage and tax statement an caregiver receives, by January 31.
• 1099. The year-end form (1099-NEC) sent to a non-caregiver vendor where required, also by January 31.
• Electronic Visit Verification (EVV). A mandate that staff paid with SDP funds record their visits electronically. Our caregivers clock in and out with the AxisCare app on their own phone.
• Monthly expenditure report. The report every FMS must send: what was allocated, what was spent in the last 30 days and what remains.

Safety and rights

• Special Incident Report. A report vendored providers, including the FMS, must file when certain incidents occur. Caregivers are mandated reporters of abuse and neglect.
• Fair hearing. The appeal process for regional center decisions. Your rights in SDP are the same as in traditional services.

How Sentinel Four handles this

Your dedicated case manager is the person to ask when a term on a regional center form or a pay stub is unclear, and the portal shows your budget in the same categories your spending plan uses. We offer all three models, run weekly payroll with paydays every Monday, and send the monthly expenditure report. We do not approve services, supervise caregivers or provide care. The models page and what our role is as an FMS expand the definitions above.