Glossary
Individual Budget
Also called: budget, SDP budget, certified budget
Last reviewed September 9, 2026
The one-sentence answer
Your individual budget is the total amount of regional center money available to you for the year — one number, which you then decide how to spend.
What this means for you
The number is not negotiable the way a salary is. It is calculated from what the regional center would have spent on you in the traditional service system. The DDS FAQ puts a ceiling on it in one sentence:
"An individual's budget amount cannot exceed the amount that services would have cost if the individual was not in the SDP."
And from the December 2025 DDS presentation:
"An individual budget must be built based on the services the regional center would fund in the traditional service delivery model."
So self-determination changes who decides how the money is spent, not how much money there is. Families who arrive expecting a larger budget are usually disappointed; families who arrive expecting control usually aren't.
How the number gets built depends on whether you're already a regional center client. If you are, it starts from your most recent available 12 months of purchase of service. If you're new, it starts from the average regional center cost for the services you've been found to need, adjusted for unique needs when those are certified as necessary.
The regional center calculates and certifies it. DDS does not approve individual budgets — a point DDS makes explicitly. Even the reporting requirement for large increases is monitoring, not approval.
It can change. The budget may be revised annually, or sooner if your circumstances change, with IPP team documentation.
For the detail-oriented
The statutory definition (WIC 4685.8) is: "the amount of regional center purchase of service funding available to the participant for the purchase of services and supports."
Calculation and revision are governed by WIC 4685.8(m). The operative current guidance is DDS Directive D-2025-Self-Determination Program-003 (November 25, 2025), Initial Individual Budgets and Spending Plans — the most operationally important recent directive on this subject. Note that SDP has no adopted regulations; directives are the operative rules.
DDS publishes an Individual Budget Calculation and Certification Tool that regional centers use for the arithmetic.
Two things the budget does not cover, in opposite directions:
- Your FMS provider's fee is paid by the regional center outside your budget, so it never reduces what you have to spend. See Financial Management Services.
- Your independent facilitator, if you hire one, is paid from your budget, and the statute is explicit that your budget will not be increased to cover the cost. See independent facilitator.
That asymmetry catches people out constantly, and it is worth stating early in any conversation about cost.
There is an unresolved question about whether a distinct annual re-certification of SDP status exists separate from the ordinary IPP and budget cycle. No DDS document confirming one has been found. Don't assert that it exists until it's verified.