Services for children with disabilities at high risk in 2026

California is home to nearly 1 million children with physical, developmental, or cognitive disabilities—most of whom receive at least some services through Medicaid. But cuts from President Donald Trump’s sweeping budget bill have put these critically important services at risk — leaving parents in California worried about the future of their children.

As CalMatters’ Carolyn Jones explains, $1 trillion in Medicaid cuts over 10 years help fund a wide range of services for children with disabilities, including speech and physical therapy, wheelchairs and home aides. They can receive therapy through the regional centers, which strive to help people with disabilities live as independently as possible. The California Regional Centers operate through a network of 21 nonprofit organizations—one-third of which are funded by Medicaid.

Medicaid also pays for therapists, equipment, vision and hearing tests and other services for schools that are available to all students, not just those with disabilities.

But because of cuts in federal budget funding — which were made to help offset the cost of extending Trump’s 2017 tax cuts. benefit mostly the rich — the money for the regional centers will run out by the end of January and it is not clear what services will be on the market.

• Christine Wrightexecutive director of inclusive practices and systems at the Sacramento County Office of Education: “We have a delicate network of services that, combined, support the whole child, the whole family. So when a major foundational structure is upended, like Medicaid, for example, it’s not just one knife cut. It’s multiple.”

The cuts are causing concern among some California families, such as Los Angeles resident Lela Coppedge. She and her husband have a 16-year-old son with cerebral palsy. Although both parents work and have private health insurance, they could not afford their son’s care – which includes a nurse who comes in four days a week to help him with basic activities – without government help.

• Coppedge: “I’m going down this rabbit hole of worst-case scenarios. Before this happened, I felt like there was a clear path for my son. Now that path is gone and it’s terrifying.”

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For making what he sees as concessions to the Trump administration, Gov. Gavin Newsom has been quick to rebuke some industries and institutions — for example, when he criticized law firms for “selling out” to the administration’s demands this year and threatened to withdraw state funding from California universities that have entered into certain agreements with Trump.

But when it comes to Big Tech, the governor takes a more forgiving approachwrites Jeanne Kuang of CalMatters.

At The New York Times Financial Summit on Wednesday, Newsom characterized the efforts of tech leaders to court Trump’s favor as “situational” and that he doesn’t see their apparent shift to the right “as much of a shift as maybe others.”

• Newsom: “I think it’s a little bit more, I don’t want to say the word transactional, but it’s fiduciary.”

As a former mayor of San Francisco, Newsom has had a long relationship with tech executives. California relies on industry profits to help balance its budget, and if Newsom decides to run for president in 2028, he may find wealthy Silicon Valley donors valuable.

• Peter Leerow-Moonsenior vice president at the Bay Area Council: “At the end of the day, the governor recognizes that we all have a stake in California’s success, and so not severing ties or undermining these industry players is in the long-term success of the Golden State.”

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A new poll surveying California voters’ views on the Trump administration’s campaign to rein in immigrants, including those with criminal convictions, shows declining support for the administration’s policies – even among the slim majority of RepublicansCalMatters’ Wendy Fry reports.

Commissioned by pro-immigrant organizations, the survey by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research covered 1,200 self-identified voters. It found that 84% of Democrats, 61% of independents and 54% of Republicans agreed that “even if someone has a record, they deserve a fair trial … before being deported.”

On the topic of California’s asylum laws, 61 percent said they want California prisons to stop directly turning over immigrants to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation.

The new survey is consistent with other recent polls showing voters disapprove of Trump’s immigration tactics. Last week, a UC Berkeley poll found that a third of Latino voters supported Trump now they regret their decisionand the Public Policy Institute of California reported that 71% of Californians polled disapprove of the job ICE is doing.

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