COFAR blog

In addition to a shortage of direct care staff, the Department of Developmental Services (DDS) appears to be dealing with a shortage of psychologists who are needed to help determine eligibility for services for potentially hundreds of people each year.

Records obtained by COFAR from DDS under a Public Records Law request show that the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services investigated at least one complaint that an inordinately long delay by DDS during the past two years in processing an application for services amounted to discrimination against the applicant.

It took more than a year for DDS to determine that the applicant was, in fact, not eligible for DDS services. Under the Department’s regulations, eligibility determinations should take no longer than 60 days. The regulations state that the determination process can take an additional 60 days (or a total of 120 days) if the application is incomplete, which was apparently the case in this matter.

DDS cited “limited clinical resources”

The OCR ultimately determined that DDS had not discriminated against the applicant. However, the federal agency noted that DDS had acknowledged that the delay in processing the application was due to “limited clinical resources.”

According to the OCR report, DDS also stated that, “the departure of a full-time RET (Regional Eligibility Team) psychologist in June 2021 affected the turnaround for reviewing applications.”

COFAR is seeking additional records from DDS in order to determine the scope of the possible backlog in eligibility determinations. We initially requested the records in September after receiving a call from a parent who said she had been told the eligibility determination process in her region could take up to a year to carry out.

Under DDS regulations, the Regional Eligibility Teams consist at least one licensed doctoral level psychologist, an individual with a master’s degree in social work, and a Department eligibility specialist.

Job posting records show few hires

Our records request in September was for records concerning any backlogs or delays in processing eligibility applications, and concerning shortages of psychologists or other members of Regional Eligibility Teams.

Records provided in response so far by DDS show that the Department posted openings for psychologists on 15 occasions between July 2022 and September 2023. During that time, only two psychologists were hired, the records indicate. DDS has so far not responded to questions we submitted last week about the job posting records.

The postings were for eligibility psychologists, licensed psychologists III and IV, and regional, clinical, and senior psychologists. According to the records, the minimum salaries for those positions averaged $90,300, and the maximum salaries averaged $147,000.

Six of the job postings indicated that the hired psychologists would be involved in making determinations of eligibility for services.

OCR investigated whether delay was discrimination

According to the report by the OCR, dated June 27, on the discrimination complaint, the complainant alleged that the DDS Regional Eligibility Team had received their application for adult Community Developmental Disability (CDD) supports in January 2021. But it wasn’t until February 2022, or more than a year later, that the applicant was evaluated for his or her eligibility, the applicant alleged.

The complainant maintained that the delay prevented them from accessing benefits and care to which they were entitled. The complainant’s name was redacted in the report.

OCR is responsible for enforcing Section 504 of the federal Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and of Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). DDS is required to comply with both of those statutes.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act states that no disabled person may be excluded or denied benefits on the basis of disability from any program receiving federal funding.

The OCR report stated that in May 2022, DDS issued an eligibility determination letter to the applicant informing them that they were actually ineligible for CDD supports as they did not meet all four criteria of the “Developmental Disability” definition.

OCR did not find noncompliance, for unclear reasons

Despite DDS’s admitted delay in processing the application, the OCR report stated that it had “not found sufficient evidence of noncompliance regarding the allegation that DDS discriminated against the complainant.” The report stated that the OCR’s determination applied only to that particular complaint.

While DDS was not cited in this case with a violation of either the Rehabilitation Act or the ADA, it is nevertheless concerning that the Department apparently has too few psychologists available to ensure timely reviews of eligibility applications and possibly for other functions.

According to the job postings, those other functions for psychologists include providing services to “individuals in crisis,” “completing functional behavior assessments,” providing clinical consultation and training to DDS service providers, and helping to “enhance newly created behavioral treatment strategies.”

It’s not clear whether the reason for the Department’s lack of clinical resources has to do with the salary range that the Department offers or what the Department may be doing to rectify the situation.

We hope that the next set of documents we are expecting from DDS will shed more light on this issue. What these documents show so far is evidence of what appears to be growing dysfunction within DDS in carrying out its mission of caring for the most vulnerable members of our society.