COA - Council On Accreditation

COA’s Standards for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities (PA-DDS) apply to programs and services whose focus is working with the DD population, or when individuals with developmental disabilities are a significant proportion of the service population.

Note: Please see Self-Paced_Training: Services for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities (DDS) in the Tools Index for additional assistance with this standard.


	PURPOSE: Children, youth, and adults who participate in Services for Individuals with Developmental Disabilities achieve full integration and inclusion in the mainstream, make choices, exert control over their lives, and fully participate in, and contribute to, their communities.

RELATED FILES

PA_DDS Template.doc
DDS Supplement Replacement.pdf
NA Request.doc
PA-DDS Reference List.pdf


	SERVICE One or more organization-operated programs or activities that have a common general objective and deploy the organization's material and human resources in a planned and systematic manner. An organization that publicly promotes or identifies itself in writing as offering a service, is licensed to deliver a service, assigns personnel and/or space to a service, or allocates financial resources to a service is considered to offer that service.


	PROGRAM A system of services offered by an organization. For example, an organization providing a mental health service may offer several mental health programs to different populations, e.g., a mental health program for adolescent teens. The word "program" can be used interchangeably with the word "service" or to describe specific programs.


	SERVICE POPULATION A group or target population that the organization's services are designed to serve in accord with its mission, and which includes the organization's service recipients. An organization's service population may be defined by geographic location, specific problems or needs, religion, ethnicity, culture, or other factors.