Golden Gate Regional Center is a state-funded nonprofit organization serving individuals with developmental disabilities in Marin, San Francisco and San Mateo counties by assisting these individuals and their families in securing services to enable them to lead more independent, productive and normal lives. The regional center system was established in California through legislation supported primarily by Assembly member Frank D. Lanterman. Its origins, however, lay in the California State Legislature's authorization of pilot regional centers in the San Francisco Bay Area (what is now GGRC) an...d Los Angeles County (now Lanterman Regional Center). The purpose of these early regional centers, which began operating in 1966, was to assist persons with intellectual disabilities (formerly known as "mental retardation") and their families in locating and developing services for their special needs. Following the establishment of the pilot projects, which had promising early results, the Legislature passed the Lanterman Mental Retardation Services Act. Enacted in 1969, the legislation established a statewide system consisting of the two original regional centers plus five more, each serving a distinct geographical area. (Subsequent legislation has grown the number of regional centers to 21.) A second Lanterman act, the Lanterman Developmental Disabilities Services Act, was made law in 1974. It expanded the regional centers' service population to include persons with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, autism and other disabling conditions found to be closely related to intellectual disability. In 1993, the California Early Intervention Services Act expanded the regional centers' purview once more, this time to include early intervention ("Early Start") services for infants and toddlers (up to 36 months of age) who have a developmental delay or are at high risk of developing a delay. In total, California's regional centers now serve over 300,000 people.
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