Regional Centers: deliberate contract and funding disparities

Regional Centers deliberately withhold lucrative contracts from minority-led providers. Research studies show significant disparities in funding and service authorization for minority consumers. Black and Brown consumers’ high-dollar services are systematically reduced, cut, or defunded at alarming rates—undermining both the people receiving care and the providers trying to serve them.

AB 403: elimination, then return—without a path back for those pushed out

Assembly Bill 403 was publicly framed as legislation to improve foster care outcomes, but in practice it eliminated the group home licensure category in a way that disproportionately shut down African American–led programs. At the time, the justification was that foster youth would no longer be placed in group homes.

That claim has proven false.

The licensure category has effectively returned in new form, and foster youth are again being placed in congregate settings.

This raises a critical question:

**If the policy rationale was reversed, why were the minority programs closed under AB 403 not given a fair pathway to reinstatement or relicensure?**

A manufactured monopoly and a punitive licensing pipeline

Instead, the system has helped create monopoly conditions. Approximately 30 programs—primarily large, well-connected organizations—were granted licenses, while minority-led programs were pushed through excessive, punitive, and seemingly elimination-driven licensing processes. This has destroyed competition and removed any realistic pathway for smaller or minority-led programs to advance.

Retaliation and cover-ups

CCLD routinely shields other government agencies when abuse or neglect of foster children occurs. When providers question procedures, challenge inconsistencies, or report misconduct, we are often met with retaliation, harassment, and targeted enforcement—not transparency or accountability.