Glossary
Legally Responsible Person
Also called: LRP, legally responsible adult, legally responsible caretaker
Last reviewed September 17, 2026
The one-sentence answer
A legally responsible person is someone who already has a legal duty to care for the participant — and a legally responsible person cannot be paid from the spending plan to provide services.
DDS defines the term narrowly: parents of minor children, and a participant's spouse, plus in some cases a court-appointed guardian of a minor.
What this means for you
This decides whether a family member can be paid, and it is the most misunderstood rule in the program. The common belief is that relatives cannot be paid. That is not what the rule says.
DDS's own definition:
"A legally responsible person is generally defined to be the parents (natural or adoptive) of minor children and a participant's spouse. In some cases, a guardian of a minor child, such as another relative, will be a legally responsible caretaker if a court has determined they must provide care to the minor child."
The question is never "are they related?" It is "are they legally responsible for this person?" Those are different questions, and the second one has a short answer list:
| Who | Can they be paid? |
|---|---|
| Parent of a participant under 18 | No — named in the definition |
| Parent of an adult participant | Yes — the term covers parents of minors |
| The participant's spouse | No — named in the definition, at any age |
| Court-appointed guardian of a minor | Usually no, where a court required them to provide care |
| Sibling, grandparent, aunt, uncle, adult child | Yes |
| Someone unrelated | Yes |
Turning 18 changes the answer, and that makes it a planning moment rather than just a birthday. A parent who has given unpaid care for years can be employed and paid from the individual budget once their son or daughter is an adult. For some households that changes whether Self-Determination is workable at all. Worth raising with your service coordinator before the birthday, not after.
Being a conservator does not make a parent legally responsible. DDS's FAQ says a parent who is the conservator of an adult child may be paid, and so may a parent holding a durable power of attorney. Regional centers and FMS providers disagreed about this until DDS updated its FAQ — the January 2025 Ombudsperson report records the inconsistency. The published answer is the one to hold them to.
Being allowed to be paid is not the same as being qualified. The person must be an adult, qualified for the specific service, and — if they provide direct personal care — cleared by a criminal background check before starting.
Being a relative does not exempt anyone from that check. DDS applies it "including family members who provide direct personal care services." There is one exemption: "this does not include family members who live in the same home as the participant and are paid to provide direct personal care services."
So the line is the household, not the relationship: a sibling across town needs a clearance; a sibling under the same roof does not.
Check with your FMS before the first shift
Ask them before someone starts, including about who needs a background check. Your FMS has a responsibility to make sure the money is spent the way your approved spending plan says and within the DDS rules, so they check that whoever is providing a service is eligible to before it begins.
That check protects your budget. Work already done that turns out not to be payable is the expensive version of this, and it is almost always avoidable with one conversation first.
DDS writes the rules and your regional center decides. Your FMS works the question through with you and takes it to the regional center where it needs deciding there — they handle these weekly; you will not.
Providers can differ and both be right. An FMS may apply a stricter standard than DDS requires, never a looser one, so yours may ask for a check in a case DDS exempts. That is allowed, and it is not a sign anything has gone wrong.
Work out your own case with the Who can be paid? tool — four questions, and it shows the DDS language behind the answer.
For the detail-oriented
The prohibition is in Enclosure A of DDS's SDP Updated Goods and Services guidance (8 July 2024): "A legally responsible person cannot be paid to provide services." Payment to a legally responsible person also appears on Enclosure B's list of what a spending plan cannot purchase.
The logic is that you cannot be paid for a duty you already owe. That is also why the term ends where the duty ends — at adulthood for a parent, and never for a spouse.
Three relationships DDS has not addressed in writing: stepparents, registered domestic partners, and foster parents. If that is your situation, ask your regional center to answer in writing and to cite the rule it is applying. An unwritten answer is one that can change.
Do not confuse this with the separate restriction on independent facilitators, which bars parents of minor participants and spouses from that role. Different rule, different purpose — one governs who may be paid for services, the other who may act as facilitator. A paid independent facilitator also may not be paid for any other service in the same participant's plan.
The rules on paying family members differ between programs. Do not carry an answer across from IHSS.