Glossary
Notice of Action
Also called: NOA, DS 1820, notice of action, regional center notice
Last reviewed September 30, 2026
The one-sentence answer
A Notice of Action — an NOA, form DS 1820 — is the written notice your regional center must send when it decides to deny, reduce or end something and you have not agreed to it in writing. It is the document that starts your appeal clock.
What this means for you
An NOA is not bad news arriving. It is bad news arriving in a form you can fight. A decision delivered in a phone call or a meeting leaves you arguing. The same decision on a DS 1820 comes with a date, a stated reason, the law behind it, your appeal rights and an appeal request form in the envelope. If something is being taken away, you want it in writing.
Two dates matter, and they are not the same date. The form has to say when the action will take effect. Your deadlines run from when you got the notice:
| To keep your services running unchanged during the appeal | 30 days, and before the action takes effect |
| To appeal at all | 60 days |
File between day 31 and day 60 and your appeal still goes ahead — but the regional center's decision happens in the meantime. DDS says so in as many words. Keeping services during an appeal is called aid paid pending, and the whole of it turns on that 30-day line. See appeal for the process and the stages after filing.
You should not get an NOA if you genuinely agreed. DDS calls that written agreement mutual consent, and it exists when you signed an IPP containing the change, signed a list of services containing it, or sent something in writing — an email counts — saying you agree. No NOA is needed then, because there is nothing in dispute.
But here is the part that catches people. If there is no written agreement and the regional center believes you agreed anyway, it can send a Good Faith Belief letter instead of an NOA — a letter setting out why it thinks you consented. If you tell the regional center you disagree, it must then send you an NOA. So a letter saying "we understood you were happy with this" is not the end of the road. Saying "no, I did not agree" is what converts it into a notice you can appeal.
If a service is being cut and no notice has arrived, ask for one. A decision you were told about verbally still has appeal rights attached; the notice is how they are delivered. Your service coordinator can be asked directly, and the Ombudsperson can be asked if that goes nowhere.
For the detail-oriented
What the form actually says
DS 1820 is four pages. The regional center must tick which of five actions it proposes:
- Eligibility Denial
- Eligibility Termination
- Service Denial
- Service Reduction
- Service Termination
It must give the date the proposed action will occur, and it must complete three narrative fields, all marked required on the form:
- Proposed Action(s)
- Reason for the Proposed Action(s)
- Facts and Laws Supporting the Proposed Action(s)
That third field is the one to read twice. The regional center has to name the facts and the law it is relying on. If it is thin, vague, or cites nothing you can look up, that is worth raising — at an informal meeting, in mediation, or at a fair hearing.
The form also asks whether the person is a Medicaid Home and Community-Based Services waiver participant, records an authorized representative if there is one, and carries the confidentiality citations WIC 4514 and 5328 on every page.
Where the appeal goes
Appeals go to DDS, not to the regional center that issued the notice. The form gives four routes: the online appeal request form, email to AppealRequest@dds.ca.gov, post to the Office of Community Appeals and Resolutions, 1215 O Street MS 8-20, Sacramento, CA 95814, or fax to 916-654-3641.
The Good Faith Belief letter, in detail
Where there is no written mutual consent, a regional center may send this instead. The rules are specific, and worth knowing because they are checkable:
- It must be sent within 5 business days of the day the regional center believes you agreed.
- It must be in your preferred language.
- It must contain the facts showing why the regional center believes you agreed, the action it plans to take, the reasons for it, information about the appeals process, information about how to say you disagree, how to get further information about appeals, and an appeal request form.
If any of that is missing, say so. And if you disagree, say that — an NOA must follow.
Who can help, from the form itself
The DS 1820 prints these on page three:
- Your service coordinator or other regional center staff, if you ask
- Your Clients' Rights Advocate — (800) 390-7032 for Northern California, (866) 833-6712 for Southern California. This is free
- The Ombudsperson, (877) 658-9731 or ombudsperson@dds.ca.gov. If you are in the Self-Determination Program, the form directs you to sdp.ombudsperson@dds.ca.gov instead — there is a dedicated SDP address
- A Family Resource Center
The separate SDP ombudsperson address is easy to miss and it is on the form for a reason. If your notice concerns a spending plan item or an individual budget, that is the one to use.