Spending Plan

The one-sentence answer

Your spending plan is the document that says how you intend to spend your individual budget — what you're buying, from whom, and what each thing costs.

What this means for you

It has to add up to no more than your budget. That's the one hard arithmetic rule.

The regional center certifies it before you can start. You write it, they certify it. If you use an independent facilitator, they help you build it; if you don't, your regional center service coordinator does.

You are not locked in for the year. This is the part families underuse. You may move money between service codes and between budget categories at any time during the current budget year, with regional center or IPP team approval. If your son's respite needs drop in March and his transportation needs rise, you don't wait until the next budget cycle.

When your spending plan changes, the regional center must notify your FMS within three business days. If your FMS seems not to know about a change you made, that is a specific, citable obligation you can point to.

Most of your providers do not need to be regional center vendors. Per the DDS FAQ, providers other than the FMS itself do not need to be vendored. This is one of the genuine freedoms of self-determination: you can hire the neighbor who is already good with your daughter, not only an agency from an approved list. They still have to meet the qualification standards for the service, and personal-care providers still need background checks.

For the detail-oriented

The statute (WIC 4685.8) defines the spending plan as the participant's detailed plan identifying the costs of the goods, services and supports to be purchased.

A spending plan itemizes each purchase against a service code within one of the three budget categories — Living Arrangement (310–321), Employment & Community Participation (331–340), and Health & Safety (356–378) — and totals to no more than the certified individual budget.

Current operative guidance is DDS Directive D-2025-Self-Determination Program-003 (November 25, 2025), Initial Individual Budgets and Spending Plans.

Who approves what, precisely: the regional center certifies the spending plan before implementation. DDS does not approve spending plans and says so explicitly. The $20,000-and-above reporting regime is a monitoring mechanism, not an approval gate — worth knowing if someone tells you DDS has to sign off on a large purchase.

A naming trap when you read your own plan: service code 378 appears as "Child Day Care Facility" even though the service is Family Support Services, which is not day care in the ordinary sense. See family support services.