The Annual Support Plan Meeting: What the Law Says You Can Ask For

The support plan meeting is the most important hour of the year, and it is the one most families walk into unprepared - partly because it can feel like a form being filled in around you. It is not. Section 393.0651, Florida Statutes, gives you named rights in that meeting, and the cost plan rules decide whether what is agreed there actually gets paid for. This is what to know before you go in, current as of 6 September 2026.

Two documents, and the difference matters

• The support plan is the plan for the person's life - goals, needs, where they live, what they are working toward. Children aged 3 to 18 get a family support plan; everyone on the waiver gets an individual support plan.
• The cost plan is the money - the specific waiver services that will be funded, and which provider delivers each one. The support coordinator submits it and APD approves it.

Wanting something in the support plan does not fund it. Rule 65G-4.0217(4) is blunt about the sequence: for a person to begin receiving a specific waiver service, that service must be listed in an Approved Cost Plan and the service authorization must have been issued to the provider before the service is delivered. Agreement in a meeting is not authorization.

What the law says you are owed

These are from the statute itself, and they are the ones worth knowing by heart.

• You must be consulted, and you must get a copy. The client if competent, the parent or guardian, or where appropriate the client advocate, must be consulted in developing the plan and must receive a copy of it.
• The first plan has a 60 day deadline. It must be developed within 60 calendar days after APD determines the person eligible.
• The objectives are yours to set. Section 393.0651(6) says the individual or family, with the assistance of the support planning team, identifies measurable objectives for progress and specifies the time expected to achieve each one. Not the other way round.
• It is reviewed and revised annually, after consultation with you - and APD or its contractor must report to you in writing each year on habilitative and medical progress. If you have never received that written report, ask for it.
• You can challenge it. Anyone substantially affected by the initial plan or its annual review has the right to file a notice challenging the decision under sections 120.569 and 120.57, Florida Statutes.

The question about where someone lives

If a residential placement is on the table, section 393.0651(5) sets an order APD must work through, from least to most restrictive.

1. 1The person's own home, or the home of a family member or a direct service provider.
2. 2A foster care facility.
3. 3A group home facility.
4. 4An intermediate care facility for the developmentally disabled.
5. 5Other facilities licensed by APD offering special programs for people with developmental disabilities.
6. 6A developmental disabilities center.

Two things follow from that list. The law expects each option to be considered before the next, and the placement has to match the individual support plan. And the statute requires that the client if competent, the parent or guardian or client advocate, and the administrator of the facility being proposed are all consulted in determining the placement. If a home is being proposed for your family member, you are entitled to be part of that conversation - and so is the person who runs it.

If your family member is still in school

The support plan must be integrated with the IEP for any client who is a public school student under IDEA, and the two must be implemented together to maximize educational and habilitation goals.

There is a provision here that families are rarely told about. If the IEP indicates that placement in a public or private residential program is necessary in order to provide special education and related services, section 393.0651(2)(a) says the local education agency must provide for the costs of that service in accordance with IDEA. It does not stop the school district and APD sharing those costs - but the duty is named.

For anyone entering or leaving the school system, the statute also requires an interdepartmental staffing team of APD and local school representatives to develop a written transitional living and training plan, with the participation of the client, parent, guardian or client advocate. Ask for it in writing by name.

The program nobody mentions

Section 393.0651(9) says that when developing or reviewing a support plan, the waiver support coordinator shall inform the client, parent, guardian or client advocate about the consumer-directed care program established under section 409.221, Florida Statutes. In Florida that is CDC+, which lets some families direct their own budget and hire their own workers rather than purchasing services through providers.

It is not right for everyone and it carries real administrative work. But it is a statutory duty that it be raised with you, and if it never has been, that is a fair question to put to your coordinator.

How to prepare, concretely

1. 1Ask for the current support plan and cost plan a week beforehand, and read them. You are entitled to a copy of the plan, and reading last year's is the fastest way to spot objectives that were quietly carried over rather than achieved.
2. 2Ask for your most recent QSI scores. That assessment drives the algorithm behind the budget, and you are entitled to a copy of the completed evaluation and scores.
3. 3Write down the hard days, not the average ones. Assessments and plans built around a good week produce support sized for a good week.
4. 4Bring the objectives you want, phrased as measurable outcomes with a timeframe. The statute puts that job with you and the family, so arriving with them written down changes the meeting.
5. 5For anything new you want funded, ask what documentation the coordinator needs, and when. Under rule 65G-4.0217, the cost plan proposal must include a completed Verification of Available Services form, and failure to include it results in a denial of the cost plan.
6. 6Ask what unpaid and natural supports are being recorded. The cost plan is required to reflect paid and unpaid supports, including natural supports - so what your family already does gets written down, and it affects what is funded.
7. 7Before you leave, ask two questions: what is being submitted, and by what date. Then ask for the decision in writing.

Two things about the money that shape the year

• Funds have to last. Rule 65G-4.0217(5) requires clients to budget so their needs are met throughout the plan year, and every client must allocate iBudget funding each month for waiver support coordination, which is a required service.
• Running out is not a route to more. Rule 65G-4.0218(4)(b) says a significant additional need cannot be created by failing to maintain sufficient funds to cover services that were already authorised.

If a group home in Clearwater is one of the options on your family's plan, we are happy to be part of that conversation - the statute expects the administrator of a proposed placement to be consulted, and we would rather answer your questions properly than be a name on a list. Call or text 727.254.1196.