Alison Morantz, director of the Stanford Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities Law and Policy Project, calls the regional center system a “black box.” “One of the biggest problems with the system is that it is so opaque. We really don’t know what is going on,” she said. “It’s absolutely maddening that regional centers are taxpayer-funded, with their own taxpayer-funded lobbying association, and yet, taxpayers know very little about how they’re spending their money, which is arguably the worst of all worlds in a way.”