FAQ: What Are County Boards of DD?


What are county boards of DD?

Ohio’s county boards of developmental disabilities are the local government agencies fund, oversee, and sometimes directly provide services and supports needed by people with developmental disabilities to live happy, healthy, and fulfilling lives.  Each has a governing board composed of residents of the county in which the board has been established. Because they are county-based and locally-controlled, boards are able to meet the unique needs of the people who live in each county.

County boards of DD were originally created in the Ohio Revised Code in 1967 when the state recognized that no other existing systems were able to meet the needs of people with developmental disabilities and their families.  To learn more about the history of Ohio's county boards of DD, visit www.alwaysthereforohio.org/history.

County boards of DD have the ability to put tax levies on the county ballot (with permission from the county commissioners) and collect levy dollars to fund the operations of the agency and the services needed by people with disabilities. Click here to learn more about how county boards of DD are funded. (Coming soon)

All 88 of Ohio's counties have a county board of DD to meet the needs of people with disabilities and their family members. To find your county board, click here. 

Responsibilities of a County Board of DD include:

  1. Assessing county residents’ eligibility for board services;
  2. Administering, operating, and funding some facilities, programs, and services;
  3. Coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating existing services and facilities available to people with developmental disabilities;
  4. Providing or contracting for early childhood services, supportive home services, and adult services;
  5. Providing or contracting for special education services;
  6. Adopting a budget and authorizing expenditures;
  7. Submitting annual reports of board work and expenditures;
  8. Authorizing all positions of employment, establishing compensation (including but not limited to salary schedules and fringe benefits for all board employees), approving contracts of employment for management employees that are for a term of more than one year, employing legal counsel, and contracting for employee benefits;
  9. Provide service and support administration (case management);
  10. Certifying respite care home;
  11. Implementing an Employment First policy that clearly identifies community employment as the desired outcome for every person of working age who receives services from the board; and
  12. Setting benchmarks for improving community employment outcomes, among others.

 
For more information about the responsibilities of a county board of DD, contact Randy Beach at rbeach@oacbdd.org.


 

 

This page was last updated on July 6, 2017.