The department may establish within its family care program respite care services for the developmentally disabled. Such respite care services may be available to both family home caretakers and to persons referred by the regional centers for the developmentally disabled. For purposes of this section, respite care means temporary and intermittent care provided for short periods of time.
The rate of reimbursement for such respite care service shall be established by the department after it conducts a study to determine if there are increased costs inherent in the provision of an intermittent and irregular service.
(Added by renumbering Section 10053.9 by Stats. 1978, Ch. 429.)