CHAPTER 1.3. Persons With Developmental Disabilities Bill of Rights [4502. - 4505.]

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC 1.3.

in effect

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 4502. Section 4502.

(a) Persons with developmental disabilities have the same legal rights and responsibilities guaranteed all other individuals by the United States Constitution and laws and the Constitution and laws of the State of California. An otherwise qualified person by reason of having a developmental disability shall not be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity that receives public funds. (b) It is the intent of the Legislature that persons with developmental disabilities shall have rights including, but not limited to, the following: (1) A right to treatment and habilitation services and supports in the least restrictive environment. Treatment and habilitation services and supports should foster the developmental potential of the person and be directed toward the achievement of the most independent, productive, and normal lives possible. Such services shall protect the personal liberty of the individual and shall be provided with the least restrictive conditions necessary to achieve the purposes of the treatment, services, or supports. (2) A right to dignity, privacy, and humane care. To the maximum extent possible, treatment, services, and supports shall be provided in natural community settings. (3) A right to participate in an appropriate program of publicly supported education, regardless of degree of disability. (4) A right to prompt medical care and treatment. (5) A right to religious freedom and practice. (6) A right to social interaction and participation in community activities. (7) A right to physical exercise and recreational opportunities. (8) A right to be free from harm, including unnecessary physical restraint, or isolation, excessive medication, abuse, or neglect. (9) A right to be free from hazardous procedures. (10) A right to make choices in their own lives, including, but not limited to, where and with whom they live, their relationships with people in their community, the way they spend their time, including education, employment, and leisure, the pursuit of their personal future, and program planning and implementation. (11) A right to a prompt investigation of any alleged abuse against them.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 4502.1. Section 4502.1.

(a) The right of individuals with developmental disabilities to make choices in their own lives requires that all public or private agencies receiving state funds for the purpose of serving persons with developmental disabilities, including, but not limited to, regional centers, shall respect the choices made by a consumer or, if appropriate, the consumer’s parents, legal guardian, conservator, or authorized representative. Those public or private agencies shall provide consumers with opportunities to exercise decisionmaking skills in any aspect of day-to-day living and shall provide consumers with relevant information in an understandable form to aid the consumer in making his or her choice. (b) A regional center shall provide information in a manner that is culturally and linguistically appropriate for the consumer, or, when appropriate, the consumer’s parents, legal guardian, conservator, or authorized representative, including providing alternative communication services, as required by Article 9.5 (commencing with Section 11135) of Chapter 1 of Part 1 of Division 3 of Title 2 of the Government Code and the regulations implementing that article.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 4503. Section 4503.

Each person with developmental disabilities who has been admitted or committed to a state hospital, community care facility as defined in Section 1502 of the Health and Safety Code, or a health facility as defined in Section 1250 of the Health and Safety Code shall have the following rights, a list of which shall be prominently posted in English, Spanish, and other appropriate languages, in all facilities providing those services and otherwise brought to his or her attention by any additional means as the Director of Developmental Services may designate by regulation: (a) To wear his or her own clothes, to keep and use his or her own personal possessions including his or her toilet articles, and to keep and be allowed to spend a reasonable sum of his or her own money for canteen expenses and small purchases. (b) To have access to individual storage space for his or her private use. (c) To see visitors each day. (d) To have reasonable access to telephones, both to make and receive confidential calls. (e) To have ready access to letterwriting materials, including stamps, and to mail and receive unopened correspondence. (f) To refuse electroconvulsive therapy. (g) To refuse behavior modification techniques which cause pain or trauma. (h) To refuse psychosurgery notwithstanding the provisions of Sections 5325, 5326, and 5326.3. Psychosurgery means those operations currently referred to as lobotomy, psychiatric surgery, and behavioral surgery and all other forms of brain surgery if the surgery is performed for any of the following purposes: (1) Modification or control of thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior rather than the treatment of a known and diagnosed physical disease of the brain. (2) Modification of normal brain function or normal brain tissue in order to control thoughts, feelings, action, or behavior. (3) Treatment of abnormal brain function or abnormal brain tissue in order to modify thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior when the abnormality is not an established cause for those thoughts, feelings, actions, or behavior. (i) To make choices in areas including, but not limited to, his or her daily living routines, choice of companions, leisure and social activities, and program planning and implementation. (j) Other rights, as specified by regulation.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 4504. Section 4504.

The professional person in charge of the facility or his designee may, for good cause, deny a person any of the rights specified under subdivisions (a), (b), (c), (d), and (e) of Section 4503. To ensure that these rights are denied only for good cause, the Director of Developmental Services shall adopt regulations specifying the conditions under which they may be denied. Denial of a person’s rights shall in all cases be entered into the person’s treatment record and shall be reported to the Director of Developmental Services on a quarterly basis. The content of these records shall enable the Director of Developmental Services to identify individual treatment records, if necessary, for future analysis and investigation. These reports shall be available, upon request, to Members of the Legislature. Information pertaining to denial of rights contained in the person’s treatment record shall be made available, on request, to the person, his attorney, his parents, his conservator or guardian, the State Department of Developmental Services, and Members of the Legislature.

Cal. Welfare and Institutions Code - WIC § 4505. Section 4505.

For the purposes of subdivisions (f) and (g) of Section 4503, if the patient is a minor age 15 years or over, the right to refuse may be exercised either by the minor or his parent, guardian, conservator, or other person entitled to his custody. If the patient or his parent, guardian, conservator, or other person responsible for his custody do not refuse the forms of treatment or behavior modification described in subdivisions (f) and (g) of Section 4503, such treatment and behavior modification may be provided only after review and approval by a peer review committee. The Director of Developmental Services shall, by March 1, 1977, adopt regulations establishing peer review procedures for this purpose.

Source: CA Legislative Counsel Bulk DataURL: https://downloads.leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/pubinfo_2025.zipFetched: 6/27/2026