Q: The regional center said no. What are my deadlines?
A: Two clocks, and almost everyone confuses them.
Sixty days to appeal. Anyone dissatisfied with a decision or action of the regional center "shall, upon filing a request within 60 days after notification of that decision or action, be afforded an opportunity for an informal meeting, a mediation, and a fair hearing."¹
Thirty days to keep your services running while the appeal happens. Services continue during the appeal only if the appeal request is postmarked or received "no later than 30 days after receipt of the notice of the proposed action… but no later than the effective date of the action."²
Read that second one carefully, because it is two conditions joined by and, not an either-or. Thirty days from getting the notice and before the action takes effect. Miss it and you still have your appeal — you just lose the services while it runs. That is the trade, and knowing it is the difference between filing this week and filing next month.
The notices that start the clocks
Before a cut, 30 days' warning. The notice must be sent "at least 30 days prior" to a decision reducing, terminating or changing services in your plan, or a decision that you are no longer eligible — and it "shall specify the effective date of the action."³
When a new request is denied, five business days. Notice must go out "no more than five business days after" the decision to deny a service requested for inclusion in the plan.⁴
The health-and-safety exception. The 30-day advance notice is not required where a change "is determined to be necessary for the health and safety of the recipient" — but notice must still be given within 10 days after the action.⁵ Note the effect: a same-day change can compress the aid-paid-pending window almost to nothing.
The three steps, and their day counts
You are entitled to all three, in order, and you can skip forward.
Informal meeting. Held within 10 days of the request, with a written decision within 5 days of the meeting.⁶
Mediation. Held "within 30 days of the date the appeal request form is received," conducted "in an informal, nonadversarial manner." Either side may withdraw after the first session and go to hearing.⁷
Fair hearing. Held "within 50 days of the date the appeal request form is received… unless a continuance is granted to the claimant." And a useful one: "A claimant's first request for a continuance made prior to the commencement of the hearing shall be granted without a showing of good cause."⁸
Decision. Within 10 business days of the last day of the hearing, and in any event no later than 80 days after the appeal request form was received.⁹ After that: 15 days to request reconsideration, or 180 days to appeal to court.⁹ A court appeal does not by itself stay the decision, though either party may ask a court for a stay.¹⁰
Two traps in the fine print
The appeal can be deemed withdrawn. "Sixty days after receiving the informal meeting decision, the appeal shall be considered withdrawn if the claimant… has not advised the regional center… of their intent to proceed to a mediation or fair hearing."¹¹ Winning the informal meeting is fine; forgetting to say you are proceeding is fatal.
Three days, for a right you may not know you have. Deciding to proceed more than 3 days after the informal meeting decision "shall be considered a waiver of their Medicaid home and community-based services right to a hearing decision within 90 days."¹¹ If speed matters, say you are proceeding immediately.
And a grace period after you lose. If the final decision goes against you and you were receiving the disputed services, "the decision shall not be implemented until 15 days after receipt of the final hearing decision" — longer if you request reconsideration within those 15 days.¹²
What the hearing is actually like
Worth knowing before you decide whether you need help:¹³
- The regional center must serve its position statement, witness list and documents at least two business days before the hearing, translated into your preferred language.
- The regional center presents its case first.
- The hearing "need not be conducted according to the technical rules of evidence."
- An interpreter is provided by the hearing office at no cost to you.
- The hearing is open to the public unless you ask otherwise.
- Redacted final decisions are posted publicly, searchable by service type and month, within 30 days.¹⁴ You can read how similar disputes came out.
Do this: the day the notice arrives, write two dates on it — the date you received it, and the effective date printed on the notice. File the appeal request within 30 days of receipt and before that effective date so nothing stops, even if you are still gathering evidence; you can build the case afterwards. At the informal meeting, whatever happens, say in writing within three days whether you are proceeding. And bring the written denials from every other payer — the regional center is required to consider them. Who pays for what →
Sources
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4710.5(a). Repealed and added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 49, §41 (SB 188), operative 1 March 2023 — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4715(a)(1)–(4). Services continue "up to and including the 10th day after receipt of" the withdrawal, the informal meeting decision where no election is made within three days, the final administrative decision, or the post-rehearing decision — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4710(a)(1)–(2) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4710(b).
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4710(f).
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4710.6(a)(1) and §4710.7(b) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4711.5(b)(1), (c) and (g) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4712(a)(1) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4712.5(a)(1) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4715(c).
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4710.9(c)(2) and (c)(4) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4713(a) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4712(d)(1), (i)(2), (j), (l) and (m).
- Welfare & Institutions Code §4712.5(f).
All sections read on the operative text on 18 August 2026. This page describes the statute; it is not legal advice, and if services for a child are being cut it is worth getting help from an advocate before the effective date rather than after.