On August 7, 2023, the Adult Family Home Council and the State of Washington entered into an agreement to launch a pilot program.  The program will support adult family homes who are exclusively serving residents with developmental or intellectual disabilities (DD/ID).

Advocates for the DD/ID community have been working toward this goal for nearly 10 years. We recognize that the care needs and support for a younger DD/ID population is very different than the needs of many of our elderly residents. With the support of advocates, lawmakers, and the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) soon we will be launching this pilot program. 

The pilot program will run through at least June of 2025.  The legislature limited the size of the program to 100 residents. DDA will be responsible for implementing the program and providing a report to the legislature about  the overall impact of the program. 

The program will ask the AFH operator to work with qualified residents to establish and document goals.  Then support, monitor and evaluate the resident’s progress toward those goals.   Additionally, the AFH operator and staff will need to participate in DDA provided training on contract expectations, person centered services, and managing behavioral challenges. Other requirements include most of the continuing education being related to DD/ID issues and reporting paperwork to DDA. Homes participating in the program will be compensated at a rate of $2500 per month (in addition to the base daily rate) for each qualified resident.

The final agreement has been signed and now the contract is working its way through DSHS’ bureaucracy. Once finalized, DDA will begin contacting AFHs about how they can participate in the pilot program.   

Thank you to all the advocates and members who supported this effort.  We look forward to seeing these advocacy efforts help us to actualize our mission of improving the lives of vulnerable adults.