Alta California Regional Center: Offices, Intake and Services

Alta’s 8 offices, and where families get help, testing and ABA

Alta’s eight offices come first, then free parent support, autism assessments and ABA therapy in the Sacramento area. Clinics are here because their own pages describe this work with children, not as endorsements; ask about insurance and waits when you call.

Who qualifies for Alta Regional Center

Alta follows the same state rules as California’s other 20 regional centers. There are three ways in, depending on age (DDS eligibility criteria):

• Early Start, birth to 36 months. A baby or toddler qualifies with a delay of at least 25% in one or more areas (thinking and learning, communication, social-emotional, self-care, or physical and motor development, including vision and hearing), with an established risk condition such as Down syndrome, or with a high risk from a combination of medical factors (Alta).
• Lanterman Act, any age. The person has autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, intellectual disability, or a condition closely related to intellectual disability or needing similar treatment. It must begin before age 18, be expected to last, and be a substantial disability: significant limits in at least three of seven areas (self-care, language, learning, mobility, self-direction, capacity for independent living and economic self-sufficiency).
• Provisional eligibility, ages 3 and 4. A young child can qualify without a diagnosis if the disability isn’t only physical and causes significant limits in at least two major life activities. If a 3- or 4-year-old isn’t found to have a developmental disability, the regional center must check provisional eligibility in the same 120 days (DDS).

There’s no charge for the eligibility assessment, and most services are free regardless of age or income (DDS). Family income and immigration status don’t affect eligibility (DDS guide). DDS also ended its family fee programs, the Annual Family Program Fee and the Family Cost Participation Program, on July 1, 2024 (DDS).

A learning disability or mental health condition on its own doesn’t qualify, and neither does a disability that is only physical. If Alta finds your child ineligible, you can still ask your school district in writing for a special education assessment.

How to apply to Alta, step by step

1. Create a My Alta account. Alta takes applications for every age through its online portal. It suggests using a computer rather than a phone; for hands-on help, call (916) 978-6400 and press 0 (Alta, age 3 and up).
2. Apply, and upload what you have: earlier evaluations, IEPs, medical records. For a child under 3, a doctor or other professional can also refer through the portal and email records to IntakeReferrals@altaregional.org. For age 3 and up, Alta asks the family to apply itself. DDS lists Alta’s Early Start intake line as (916) 978-6249.
3. Intake. By law, the regional center must do intake, including deciding whether to assess, within 15 working days of your request (Welfare and Institutions Code 4642). An intake coordinator interviews you, and an intake counselor may help with diagnosis and arrange specialists.
4. Assessment and decision. The assessment must be finished, and eligibility decided, within 120 days of intake, or within 60 days if a delay would put your child’s health, safety or development at risk (W&I Code 4643; DDS). At Alta, a team of a physician, a psychologist and a social worker decides.
5. Your first plan. If your child is eligible, you’re assigned a service coordinator, and the first Individual Program Plan (IPP) must be finished within 60 days. After that, you can ask for an IPP meeting at any time, and it must happen within 30 days (DDS guide).

Under 3, the clock is shorter. Early Start has 45 days from referral to assign a service coordinator, get your consent, finish evaluations and, if your child qualifies, write an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) (DDS). Services in the plan must start within 45 days of your consent, and you don’t have to use your insurance for the evaluation. Ninety days before your child turns 3, you and the service coordinator plan the move to school district services (DDS Early Start FAQ).

What Alta can pay for: ABA, respite, camps and more

Alta assesses, plans and coordinates services, and buys the ones in your child’s plan, but it pays last. The Lanterman Act requires regional centers to use other resources first, such as health insurance, Medi-Cal and the school district (DDS). Alta’s purchase of service policies, approved by DDS, cover areas such as respite, day care and after-school care, early treatment for autism, social recreation and camp, durable medical equipment, transportation and family support (Alta).

• ABA therapy. State law requires private health insurers regulated by California to cover behavioral health treatment for autism, and Medi-Cal covers it for members under 21, through your Medi-Cal health plan or a fee-for-service provider. You can go straight to your insurer, whether or not Alta serves your child; a doctor or psychologist decides whether it’s medically necessary (Alta). When insurance covers a service in your child’s plan, state law lets a regional center help pay the copay, coinsurance or deductible for families whose income is at or below 400% of the federal poverty level, with some exceptions (W&I Code 4659.1).
• Respite. Short, regular or occasional care that gives a family a break, at home or in a licensed setting. Alta decides the hours from your child’s needs, such as self-care, medical needs and behavior, and what other help you have (Alta respite policy). It isn’t meant as day care.
• Social recreation, camp and non-medical therapies. Regional centers were barred from buying these, with few exceptions, from July 2009 to June 2021; the authority came back on July 1, 2021 (Alta). Alta’s policy names swimming, gymnastics, sports clubs, dance, martial arts, creative arts, music, art and equestrian therapy, and day or overnight camp in California. Generic resources come first, and the activity must relate to the developmental disability (Alta).
• Early Start services for babies and toddlers: speech, occupational and physical therapy, special instruction, family training and home visits, nutrition, assistive technology, vision and hearing services. Evaluation, assessment and service coordination are free; insurance is billed for medically necessary therapies, and the regional center or school district covers what insurance doesn’t (DDS).

For what ABA therapy costs and who pays, see How Much Does ABA Therapy Cost?.

Which Alta office serves you, and your family resource center

Alta serves 10 counties. Your county decides your office, and DDS lists a family resource center for babies and toddlers in each one. To check which regional center serves an address, use the DDS Regional Center Lookup.

Older pages around the web, and some of Alta’s own older brochures, list addresses that have changed: the main office on Harvard Street, Roseville on Santa Clara Drive, Woodland on West Main Street, Placerville on Placerville Drive. Use the addresses on Alta’s offices page. The process and timelines for applying are the same at every regional center in California.

If Alta says no: appeals and complaints

Alta must send a Notice of Action before it denies eligibility, denies a new service, or changes or ends a current one. You appeal to the Department of Developmental Services (DDS), not to Alta: online, with form DS 1821, by email, mail or fax (DDS appeals). The timeline (DDS):

1. Within 30 days of the notice, and before the change takes effect, file if you want your child’s current services to continue during the appeal (aid paid pending).
2. Within 60 days is the deadline to appeal at all.
3. Within 10 days of your request, Alta holds an informal meeting with you, if you want one.
4. Within 30 days, mediation, if you want it.
5. Within 50 days, a hearing before a judge from the Office of Administrative Hearings, with a final decision within 80 days of your request. Alta must carry out a final decision within 30 days.

Under 3, Early Start has its own process. You can ask for mediation (form DS 1808), file a state complaint, or request a due process hearing (form DS 1802), which must be finished within 30 days of when the Office of Administrative Hearings gets your request (DDS Early Start FAQ).

If you believe a right was wrongly denied, rather than a service, that’s a Section 4731 complaint (DDS). For help, Alta’s rights page lists the DDS Office of the Ombudsperson, (877) 658-9731 or Ombudsperson@dds.ca.gov, and Disability Rights California, 1831 K Street, Sacramento, (916) 504-5800 (Alta).

Questions parents ask