Overview

Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services (HCDDS) is a government social services agency established by state law. For more than 50 years, HCDDS has provided educational, vocational, and residential support and services to thousands of individuals with developmental disabilities (DD). Each year, we support approximately 7,300 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout their lives, from babies through seniors, by providing case management, monitoring service quality, and funding services provided by our community partners.

We treat each person we serve as a unique individual and connect them to services to reflect the life they want. By collaborating with more than 1,000 certified providers, we’re able to support people to live a life that is important and meaningful to them, on their own terms.

In 2009, the agency changed its name from Hamilton County Board of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (HCBMRDD) to Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services. This change was due to longstanding advocacy efforts of people with disabilities and their families who successfully removed the term “mental retardation” from many official references. In 2016, Ohio Gov. John Kasich signed legislation changing all references to the “R” word in state documents to “person with an intellectual disability.”

Hamilton County DD Services receives about 80 percent of our revenue from a property tax levy that has been approved by voters every five years since 1974. When possible, we fund services using federal Medicaid Waivers, which efficiently use tax levy dollars to secure more than $92 million of federal funding that’s reinvested in our local economy.

The agency is overseen by a seven-person Board of Directors and has been led since January 2021 by Superintendent Leia Snyder.

To learn more about our work you can find our agency’s long-term Strategic Plan, our Annual Plan, and our Annual Report, along with other publications here.