How New Jersey pays for disability services

Waiver inventory

I did not locate a New Jersey 1915(i), 1915(k)/Community First Choice, or 1915(b)(3) authority serving people with IDD. NJ FamilyCare MLTSS (1115) is the state's managed long-term care vehicle but people enrolled in DDD's waivers receive DDD services fee-for-service outside MLTSS. Waiver control numbers were not published on any state page I retrieved, so none are asserted here.

State-only funded programs

• Community Services Waiting List (CSWL), Priority Category services. Funded 100 percent with state dollars per the Office of Legislative Services analysis. Serves people reached through the Division's Annual Priority Waiting List Initiative and statutorily-required emergency placements before Medicaid waiver enrollment. Gross annual program cost $90,631,398 (FY2025 revised) and $90,729,232 (FY2026 estimate); 3,665 people in the priority category (FY2026 estimate). Administered by DHS Division of Developmental Disabilities. nj.gov
• Contracted Services (out-of-state placements and non-Medicaid in-state placements). Pays third-party providers for DDD clients living mostly out of state and for emergency group home placements of people not yet Medicaid-eligible. FY2026 recommended $100,947,000 state Grants-in-Aid. Out-of-state census 261 average monthly, $250,173 average annual cost per person, $65,295,153 gross (FY2026 estimate). pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• Client Housing / Supportive Housing Connection. State-funded voucher-based rental assistance administered jointly by DHS and the NJ Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency. FY2026 recommended $37,990,000 in the Client Housing line; 9,047 vouchers and $58,106,282 gross program cost (FY2026 estimate). Clients contribute 30 percent of gross income toward rent. nj.gov
• Skill Development Homes. State Grants-in-Aid line, $5,498,000 in FY2026. NJ's licensed family-based (host home) residential model. nj.gov
• Direct Support Professionals Wage Increase. Separate state Grants-in-Aid line held flat at $53,148,000 in FY2026 to maintain competitive DSP wages, on top of the $9.1 million added for the January 1, 2026 increase. nj.gov
• START Regional Response Teams for behavioral health crisis in people with IDD: $3,200,000 Direct State Services, FY2026. Provider Governance and Oversight: $300,000 new in FY2026. Disability Mortality and Abuse Prevention Advisory Committee: $150,000 new in FY2026. RWJBarnabas/Woods Integrated Pilot Clinic (Hamilton): $250,000 new in FY2026. Ombudsman for Individuals with Intellectual or Developmental Disabilities and their Families: $573,000 (Treasury budget). nj.gov
• Developmental Disabilities Waiting List Reduction Fund. A dedicated state fund with a small interfund transfer line ($60,000 recommended FY2026). nj.gov
• The Office for Prevention of Developmental Disabilities ($559,000 in FY2025) and the NJ Donated Dental Program ($170,000) were recommended for elimination in FY2026.

County / regional / local funding

None identified. New Jersey funds developmental disability services centrally through DHS/DDD; the FY2026 Budget Detail and the OLS Department of Human Services budget analysis show no county levy, county board, or regional center appropriation stream for IDD services, and the DDD program lines are entirely General Fund, Casino Revenue Fund, and federal Medicaid. The only geographically-named items I found were one-off legislative add-ons in FY2025 (LADACIN Network, Monmouth County, $100,000; Recycle Ramp Program, Habitat for Humanity Salem County, $75,000), both eliminated in FY2026. Sources checked: nj.gov and pub.njleg.state.nj.us

Funding scale

• Total DDD Community Programs, all funds, FY2026 recommended: $3.81 billion ($1.91 billion state appropriations, $1.89 billion federal funds, $6.2 million all other funds), a $274.2 million (7.8 percent) increase over FY2025. pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• Five state developmental centers, FY2026: $339.2 million ($252.6 million federal, $86.6 million state). Combined DDD total is therefore roughly $4.15 billion all funds in FY2026. pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• Medicaid HCBS DD waiver spending (matchable expenditures only), FY2026 estimate: CCP $2,956,226,264; Supports Program $757,004,532. The Executive estimates total CCP plus Supports Program expenditures from all sources at $3.71 billion in FY2026, 156 percent above FY2019. nj.gov
• State vs federal share: total state appropriation for CCP plus Supports Program in FY2026 is $1.75 billion; the FY2026 budget shifts $371.3 million of CCP, Individual Supports from the General Fund to the Casino Revenue Fund ($961,258,000 CRF in FY2026). pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• FMAP: 50.00 percent (FY2026). kff.org
• Spending per participant, FY2026 estimate: CCP $221,407; Supports Program $46,351. FY2025 revised: CCP $213,992; SP $43,754. nj.gov
• People served in DD waivers: 29,684 combined (FY2026 estimate), up 50 percent from FY2019. pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• Waiting list: there is a waiting list only for the Community Care Program; there is no waiting list for the Supports Program. CCP Priority Waiting List: 2,176 (FY2023 actual), 2,687 (FY2024 actual), 3,154 (FY2025 revised), 3,665 (FY2026 estimate). A separate General Waiting List exists whose members are not "reached" and whose size is not published. Average wait time is not published. nj.gov and nj.gov
• Residential census by setting, FY2026 estimate: Individual Supports (licensed residential) 8,389; Own Home 20,201; Community Care Residence 193. nj.gov

Residential funding detail

What is funded. New Jersey funds four distinct residential arrangements:

1. Group homes and supervised apartments under the CCP service "Individual Supports, Daily Rate." Paid as a per diem set by a tiered acuity structure (tiers A, Aa, B, Ba, C, Ca, D, Da, E, Ea) derived from the NJ Comprehensive Assessment Tool. The daily rate factors in a 5 percent absentee allowance and requires shared staff for 3 or more hours. Transportation is a required component of the daily rate and cannot be billed or charged separately.
2. Own home / family home supports under CCP "Individual Supports" billed at a 15-minute unit (base and acuity-differentiated), and under the Supports Program as "Community Based Supports" at a 15-minute unit. Self-Directed Employee (SDE) versions of both are paid at Reasonable and Customary wage ranges rather than a fixed rate: standard services capped at $25.00 per hour, enhanced at $36.50 per hour, registered nurse at $51.50 per hour.
3. Skill Development Homes (host home / family-based licensed residential), funded as a separate state Grants-in-Aid line of $5,498,000 in FY2026 rather than through the FFS rate schedule.
4. Community Care Residences, a shrinking legacy family-care model (193 average monthly census projected FY2026).
5. ICF/IID: five state developmental centers (Green Brook, Vineland, Woodbine, New Lisbon, Hunterdon), 903 average daily population FY2026, $339.2 million. FY2026 estimated annual per capita cost ranges from $454,060 (Hunterdon) to $757,375 (Green Brook). Admissions have been limited since November 2007 to court-ordered placements, temporary emergency placements, interstate compact transfers, and cases with no adequate community resource.

Payment structure. Acuity-tiered per diem for licensed residential; 15-minute units for in-home and own-home supports; daily units for out-of-home overnight respite; monthly PMPM for support coordination. Tier assignment and acuity designation come from the NJ CAT.

Room and board. Room and board is not paid by DDD out of the service rate. Under fee-for-service, the former "Contribution to Care" was replaced by an "Individual Contribution": the person pays 30 percent of gross income toward rent and receives a Supportive Housing Connection voucher covering the remainder of eligible rental cost up to Fair Market Rent, paid directly to the landlord. A separate Individual Contribution is paid to the residential provider for food and utilities from the person's own income, typically SSI. Providers may not charge for rent already covered by the 30 percent contribution plus voucher, and may not charge for services included in the waiver rate such as transportation. The Supportive Housing Connection is a state-funded program (9,047 vouchers, $58.1 million gross, FY2026 estimate). nj.gov

Rate structure link: nj.gov (Appendix H, CCP Services Quick Reference Guide)

Comparable service rates

Rates below are from the CCP and Supports Program Policies & Procedures Manuals, Version 7.0.1 and 10.0.1, September 2025. A DSP wage increase of about $0.46 per hour took effect January 1, 2026 and raised the rates for Career Planning, Community Inclusion Services, Community-Based Supports, Day Habilitation, Individual Supports, Prevocational Training, Respite, and both Supported Employment codes; DDD stated the manuals would not be republished with the adjusted rates until roughly spring 2026, and as of this research the published tables still show the September 2025 amounts.

Individualized "up-to" budget amounts effective January 1, 2026: Supports Program tiers range from $28,635 (Tier A) to $113,205 (Tier Ea); Community Care Program tiers range from $66,424 (Tier A) to $527,838 (Tier Ea). nj.gov

Official rate schedule links

• CCP Policies & Procedures Manual, Appendix H rate table: nj.gov
• Supports Program Policies & Procedures Manual rate table: nj.gov
• Quick Guide, FY26 Supports and Community Care Program Budgets, effective January 1, 2026: nj.gov
• FY26 DSP wage increase bulletin: nj.gov
• FY26 DSP wage increase FAQ: nj.gov
• Original 2015 fee-for-service cost study rate schedule (historical baseline, "The Brick" methodology): nj.gov
• Guidance on Division funding and residential provider charges (room and board rules): nj.gov

Notable features and flags

• January 1, 2026: DSP and DSP Supervisor wage increase of about $0.46 per hour, funded by $9.1 million in the FY2026 Appropriations Act, applied through upward adjustments to nine service rates and to all individualized up-to budgets. Providers must pass 100 percent through to base wages no later than March 1, 2026 including retroactive pay, and must report compliance to DDD in fall 2026. nj.gov
• FY2026 budget: proposes shifting $371.3 million of CCP, Individual Supports from the General Fund to the Casino Revenue Fund, made possible by proposed increases in internet gaming and online sports wagering tax rates from 15 percent and 13 percent to 25 percent, projected to raise $322.6 million. This makes a growing share of NJ's group home funding dependent on gambling revenue. pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• FY2026: a $6.3 million reduction from transitioning 318 people off the 100-percent-state-funded Community Services Waiting List Priority Category into the federally matched CCP. Even so, the priority waiting list is projected to grow from 3,154 to 3,665. pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• 2025: DDD's Vendor Fiscal/Employer Agent fiscal intermediary transitioned from Public Partnerships LLC to Acumen Fiscal Agent; Agency with Choice per-member-per-month rates were increased effective May 1, 2025, the first change in the five years since that model started. nj.gov
• September 17, 2025: DDD updated both HCBS policy manuals (CCP v7.0.1, Supports Program v10.0.1), including new acuity factor requirements (Sections 3.4.1 through 3.4.3) and revised individual budgets reflecting rate increases. nj.gov
• Cost growth is outpacing enrollment. Per-client cost in FY2026 exceeds FY2019 by 99.8 percent in CCP and 119.4 percent in the Supports Program, driven by base rate rebasing, statutory minimum wage increases under P.L.2019 c.32, and a shift from provider-managed to more costly self-directed services. Developmental center per capita cost has risen 111 to 325 percent since FY2012 as census fell 64 percent; the State Auditor suggested consolidating Green Brook in a March 2024 report. pub.njleg.state.nj.us
• Pending oversight legislation: FY2026 includes $450,000 contingent on enactment of Senate Bill 3752 (provider governance and service standards enforcement) and Senate Bill 3754 (Disability Mortality and Abuse Prevention Advisory Committee). pub.njleg.state.nj.us

Confidence

Solid: FY2026 appropriations, enrollment, per-participant cost, waiting list counts, developmental center census and per capita cost, all from the Governor's FY2026 Budget Detail and the OLS Department of Human Services budget analysis, which are primary legislative documents. The room-and-board structure and the residential per diem tier table are from DDD's own guidance and policy manual. Estimated or dated: the service rate table reflects the September 2025 manuals; the January 1, 2026 increase is confirmed in DDD's own bulletin and FAQ but DDD had not republished the per-service dollar amounts at the time of this research, so the tabulated rates are slightly low relative to what providers are billing today. Could not find: the 1915(c) control numbers for the CCP and Supports Program on any state page; the size of the General (non-priority) CCP waiting list; average wait time; a published DDD fee schedule page separate from the policy manuals (the older ffs_rate_schedule PDF is the 2015 cost study, not current); and confirmation of whether New Jersey operates any 1915(i) authority for children with IDD.