IHSS Protective Supervision Readiness Estimator
Answer plain-English questions to get a personalized preparation plan: the areas to focus on and the real records to organize before your county assessment.
- Free
- Nothing leaves your browser
- Preparation support, not an eligibility decision
Before you start
Is the person receiving IHSS under 18 years old?
One question only applies to minor recipients. This tells us whether to include it.
Core Factors (Q1–Q5)
These five questions map to the criteria in CDSS MPP 30-757.17. Answer based on the person's typical day — not their best day.
Q1
Does the person have a diagnosed mental impairment or mental illness?
Examples: dementia, autism, intellectual disability, traumatic brain injury. A physical-only condition (like a mobility impairment) does not qualify.
Q2
Because of that condition, do they have trouble with memory, knowing where they are, or judgment — enough that they can't reliably recognize danger or keep themselves safe?
This is about whether the mental impairment affects their safety awareness — not just their ability to do daily tasks.
Q3
Is the person physically able to move into dangerous situations — like walking somewhere unsafe, wandering outside, or reaching hazardous items?
The county weighs whether the person can physically access danger. This makes active supervision necessary.
Q4
Do they do things that could cause injury — like leaving home unsafely, using the stove or water unsupervised, handling sharp objects, or touching electrical hazards?
Specific, documented examples of dangerous behaviors are the most important evidence in a PS assessment.
Q5
Do they need someone watching over them or available to step in essentially around the clock to stay safe at home?
This includes nighttime hours for live-in providers.
Three things to check
These sort out what PS is and isn't authorized for. Medical monitoring and aggression toward other people are not a basis for PS (MPP 30-757.172); self-harm depends on whether the person can understand the danger.
Q7
Is the main reason for supervision to watch for a medical emergency — like a seizure, breathing problem, or other health crisis — and little else?
Supervision required because of a medical condition, or solely to anticipate a medical emergency, is outside Protective Supervision — other IHSS or health-care services may apply depending on the facts. PS covers supervision to prevent injury from unsafe behaviors, not to detect a medical episode.
Q8
Does the person have aggressive or antisocial behavior directed at harming other people?
Aggression toward other people is not a basis for PS on its own. If the person also has separately qualifying conduct — like wandering they can't judge the danger of — whether PS still applies is something published CDSS guidance does not settle. Only your county can decide that.
Q9
If the person does things that could harm themselves, why?
Self-harm that happens because the person can't grasp the danger (like head-banging as a manifestation of their impairment) can support PS. Deliberate, knowing self-harm is not a basis on its own — but it does not rule the person out if they qualify on the factors above.
Answer all questions above to build your preparation plan.
Understand your result
Example, not your numbers- When you answer Yes to some questions and Not sure to others, the plan lists the Not sure areas first, with the kinds of real records and examples to gather for each. It never gives a score and it never says whether the person qualifies. Answer the questions above to see your own plan.
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How the plan is built
You answer plain-English questions
They ask about the person’s typical day: a diagnosed mental impairment, memory and judgment, whether they can physically move into danger, behaviors that could cause injury, and whether someone needs to be nearby around the clock. Nothing you enter is sent to us or stored.The tool lists the areas to prepare, in an order that follows your answers
The order follows your answers: the areas they make more relevant come first. This is our own ordering for preparation. It is not a score and not a probability of anything.Each area comes with real records to organize
For every area you get what to gather, such as existing diagnosis records, incident notes and a picture of a typical 24 hours. Use only what actually happened and what is actually documented.
What the county weighs
As summarized by Legal Services of Northern California from CDSS All County Letters 17-95 and 15-25, Protective Supervision turns on one question: because of a mental impairment, can the person not recognize or judge danger to themselves? The same behavior can count or not depending on understanding.
- Behavior aimed at harming other people is excluded.
- A person does not have to have been injured; a history of putting themselves in danger can be enough.
- Watching only for a medical emergency, such as a seizure, is a different IHSS service, not Protective Supervision.
- For a child, the need has to go beyond what a same-age child without disabilities would need.
The CDSS documents themselves are scanned images that we could not read, so this rests on the two summaries listed below. Read the Protective Supervision guide for more, and check the current rules with your county.
What this tool does not do
It does not decide whether anyone qualifies, and it does not predict whether a request would be approved. Only your county IHSS office, after an assessment in the home, can authorize Protective Supervision. The plan is a way to get your own records in order first.
Questions providers ask
Does a result mean the county will approve or deny?
What if a request is denied?
Sources
The description of what the county weighs comes from these summaries. We have not been able to read the CDSS letters themselves.
- Legal Services of Northern California, summary of CDSS ACL 17-95 (September 12, 2017): Protective Supervision clarifications A secondary summary. The test is whether the recipient can appreciate danger; harm to others is excluded; actual injury is not required; purely medical monitoring is a different service. (checked August 27, 2026)
- Legal Services of Northern California, summary of CDSS ACL 15-25 (2015): new instructions about Protective Supervision A secondary summary. For a minor, the need must go beyond what a same-age child without disabilities would need. (checked August 27, 2026)