We are asking Governor Moore and the Maryland General Assembly to fix the devastating cuts to the Developmental Disabilities Administration (DDA) Self-Directed Services (SDS) program and take up this issue during a Special Session for full legislative review.

Beginning October 1, if the proposed Community Pathways Waiver is approved by CMS and the new DDA wage schedule for SDS moves forward,  thousands of families and their teams who care for Marylanders with the most severe developmental disabilities will see their lives turned upside down.

The state is cutting the wages of caregivers, eliminating wage exceptions that helped those with disabilities keep experienced caregivers, and changing the way Self-Directed Services are funded.

Why this matters
Self-Directed Services serves only about 1 out of every 5 people in Maryland's developmental disabilities program and accounts for only about 15% of the DDA budget.

Yet this small group appears to be carrying more than half of the state's budget cuts to the DDA.

For many, these aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet. They mean:

• Families who may no longer be able to afford to care for their own member.
• Caregivers leaving because they can no longer earn a livable wage.
• People with severe disabilities losing the trusted caregivers who know how to keep them safe, healthy, and alive.
• Caregivers facing impossible choices between caring for citizens in the self-directed program and paying their bills.
• The state has not publicly shown how it calculated these cuts or explained why this one group is being asked to sacrifice so much more than everyone else.

Even more troubling
Many in the General Assembly were misinformed, making these extreme cuts out of fear because of concerns about federal Medicaid rules.

But since then, the federal government has made clear:

CMS has not publicly issued any notice indicating that Maryland's Community Pathways Waiver was at risk of termination due to cost neutrality concerns.

That raises a simple question:

If there was no federal warning, why are thousands of Marylanders being asked to bear such devastating cuts?

Adding to those concerns, Maryland recently confirmed through a Public Information Act request that it had no studies, no safety analysis, and no evidence comparing family caregivers with non-family staff before making policy changes that directly reduce the role of family caregivers.

The people who are served by self-direction through the DDA deserve answers before these life-changing decisions take effect.

Human impact
These changes will directly affect thousands of Marylanders with developmental disabilities and their families and teams. Many rely on trusted caregivers, often family members, who provide complex medical and daily supports that cannot easily be replaced. Reductions in wages and service flexibility risk destabilizing this workforce, increasing caregiver turnover, and disrupting continuity of care. Once these caregivers are lost, they are often not easily replaced.

Our ask
We are calling on Governor Moore and the Maryland General Assembly to:

• Fix the DDA cuts scheduled into effect starting this fall.
• Maintain current Self-Directed Services until a fix is made.
• Use Special Session to examine cumulative fiscal impact and legislative intent.
• Require full public release of the methodology and assumptions used for SDS savings.
• Ensure independent fiscal and policy review before permanent implementation.

We believe Maryland must ensure that any major changes to disability services are transparent, accurately justified, and fully understood before implementation, not after participants and their teams have already been impacted which will cause major unintended consequences.