29 U.S.C. § 796f–4: Standards and assurances…

§796f–4 Standards and Assurances for Centers for Independent Living

Title 29 › CHAPTER 16 — VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION AND OTHER REHABILITATION SERVICES › SUBCHAPTER VII — INDEPENDENT LIVING SERVICES AND CENTERS FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING › Part A — Individuals With Significant Disabilities › subpart 3 — centers for independent living › § 796f–4

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

Centers that get federal help must follow rules and make promises so their programs are run to help people with significant disabilities live independently. They must follow an independent living approach: people with disabilities must control the center’s decisions, services, management, and policies; the center must support self-help and self-advocacy; it must build peer support and role models; and it must work for equal access to community services and places. The center must serve people with many kinds of significant disabilities on a cross-disability basis, let the center decide who is eligible (not based on a single diagnosis), help people set and reach their own independent living goals, expand community options and capacity, provide core independent living services (and other services as needed), and try to get money from sources besides this program. Applicants must give written assurances the center is eligible and will follow the standards above. The center must be run in local communities by people with disabilities and have a governing board where a majority are people with significant disabilities. The center must make annual and 3-year program and financial plans with clear goals and priorities, use fair hiring and promotion practices for qualified people with significant disabilities, have a majority of staff and decisionmakers who are people with disabilities, and practice good fiscal management. The center must do yearly self-checks, keep records, and prepare an annual report showing compliance and basic facts (how many and what types of people are served; which services and how many get each; funding sources and amounts; how many people with disabilities work there and in management; and comparisons with prior years). The center must tell clients how to contact the client assistance program, do strong outreach and staff training to reach unserved or underserved groups (including minority and urban and rural populations), send its approved grant application and annual report to the Statewide Independent Living Council, file the yearly report with the designated State unit or the Administrator, and prepare an independent living plan for each person unless that person signs a waiver saying it is not needed.

Title 29, §796f–4

Labor, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)In general

Each center for independent living that receives assistance under this subpart shall comply with the standards set out in subsection (b) and provide and comply with the assurances set out in subsection (c) in order to ensure that all programs and activities under this subpart are planned, conducted, administered, and evaluated in a manner consistent with the purposes of this part and the objective of providing assistance effectively and efficiently.

(b)Standards

(1)Philosophy

The center shall promote and practice the independent living philosophy of— (A)

(B)self-help and self-advocacy;

(C)development of peer relationships and peer role models; and

(D)equal access for individuals with significant disabilities, within their communities, to all services, programs, activities, resources, and facilities, whether public or private and regardless of the funding source.

(2)Provision of services

The center shall provide services to individuals with a range of significant disabilities. The center shall provide services on a cross-disability basis (for individuals with all different types of significant disabilities, including individuals with significant disabilities who are members of populations that are unserved or underserved by programs under this subchapter). Eligibility for services at any center for independent living shall be determined by the center, and shall not be based on the presence of any one or more specific significant disabilities.

(3)Independent living goals

The center shall facilitate the development and achievement of independent living goals selected by individuals with significant disabilities who seek such assistance by the center.

(4)Community options

The center shall work to increase the availability and improve the quality of community options for independent living in order to facilitate the development and achievement of independent living goals by individuals with significant disabilities.

(5)Independent living core services

The center shall provide independent living core services and, as appropriate, a combination of any other independent living services.

(6)Activities to increase community capacity

The center shall conduct activities to increase the capacity of communities within the service area of the center to meet the needs of individuals with significant disabilities.

(7)Resource development activities

The center shall conduct resource development activities to obtain funding from sources other than this part.

(c)Assurances

The eligible agency shall provide at such time and in such manner as the Administrator may require, such satisfactory assurances as the Administrator may require, including satisfactory assurances that—

(1)the applicant is an eligible agency;

(2)the center will be designed and operated within local communities by individuals with disabilities, including an assurance that the center will have a Board that is the principal governing body of the center and a majority of which shall be composed of individuals with significant disabilities;

(3)the applicant will comply with the standards set forth in subsection (b);

(4)the applicant will establish clear priorities through annual and 3-year program and financial planning objectives for the center, including overall goals or a mission for the center, a work plan for achieving the goals or mission, specific objectives, service priorities, and types of services to be provided, and a description that shall demonstrate how the proposed activities of the applicant are consistent with the most recent 3-year State plan under section 796c of this title;

(5)the applicant will use sound organizational and personnel assignment practices, including taking affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with significant disabilities on the same terms and conditions required with respect to the employment of individuals with disabilities under section 793 of this title;

(6)the applicant will ensure that the majority of the staff, and individuals in decisionmaking positions, of the applicant are individuals with disabilities;

(7)the applicant will practice sound fiscal management;

(8)the applicant will conduct annual self-evaluations, prepare an annual report, and maintain records adequate to measure performance with respect to the standards, containing information regarding, at a minimum—

(A)the extent to which the center is in compliance with the standards;

(B)the number and types of individuals with significant disabilities receiving services through the center;

(C)the types of services provided through the center and the number of individuals with significant disabilities receiving each type of service;

(D)the sources and amounts of funding for the operation of the center;

(E)the number of individuals with significant disabilities who are employed by, and the number who are in management and decisionmaking positions in, the center; and

(F)a comparison, when appropriate, of the activities of the center in prior years with the activities of the center in the most recent year;

(9)individuals with significant disabilities who are seeking or receiving services at the center will be notified by the center of the existence of, the availability of, and how to contact, the client assistance program;

(10)aggressive outreach regarding services provided through the center will be conducted in an effort to reach populations of individuals with significant disabilities that are unserved or underserved by programs under this subchapter, especially minority groups and urban and rural populations;

(11)staff at centers for independent living will receive training on how to serve such unserved and underserved populations, including minority groups and urban and rural populations;

(12)the center will submit to the Statewide Independent Living Council a copy of its approved grant application and the annual report required under paragraph (8);

(13)the center will prepare and submit a report to the designated State unit or the Administrator, as the case may be, at the end of each fiscal year that contains the information described in paragraph (8) and information regarding the extent to which the center is in compliance with the standards set forth in subsection (b); and

(14)an independent living plan described in section 796c(e) of this title will be developed unless the individual who would receive services under the plan signs a waiver stating that such a plan is unnecessary.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Prior Provisions

A prior section 796f–4, Pub. L. 93–112, title VII, § 725, as added Pub. L. 102–569, title VII, § 701(2), Oct. 29, 1992, 106 Stat. 4462; amended Pub. L. 103–73, title I, § 114(l), Aug. 11, 1993, 107 Stat. 731, related to standards and assurances for centers for independent living, prior to the general amendment of this subchapter by Pub. L. 105–220.

Amendments

2014—Subsec. (b)(1)(D). Pub. L. 113–128, § 483(1), substituted “access for” for “access of” and “, within their communities,” for “to society and”. Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 113–128, § 483(2), substituted “Administrator” for “Commissioner” wherever appearing. 1998—Subsec. (c)(7). Pub. L. 105–332 substituted “management;” for “management, including making arrangements for an annual independent fiscal audit, notwithstanding section 7502(a)(2)(A) of title 31;”.