As of June 30^th, the process in California to renew a permanent disabled parking placard will be changing. Through the change, the state is attempting to reduce the amount of fraudulent use of the placard.

With the new change, when renewing the placard, current holders will have to sign a form from the state’s DMV office, verifying that they are: 1) still alive and 2) still in need of this placard. They will have to go through this process every six years. This new change will start affecting anyone who received the placard anytime from December 2018 and before. Anyone who meets this criterion will be first to go through this round of renewal and then will continue to do so every six years. This process will be a requirement for both disabled license plates and placards.

Remaining the same is the fact that placards will be able to be moved from one car to another.

The director of the California DMV, Steve Gordon, spoke about the bill being used to combat the fact that “people are creative, and people perhaps misuse the program.” Originally the state’s DMV passed a bill, Senate Bill 611, in 2017, as a first attempt to prevent misuse of disabled people parking program. This bill consisted of documentation that allowed the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew placards every two years at the end of June automatically. It also requires people to include a certificate of disability from a licensed medical professional.

Currently, the DMV runs annual audits at random to verify the information submitted.

On an annual basis, the DMV also checks their information against the California Department of Public Health and will use that as a basis to remove placards from people’s files if they have passed away. Under SB 611, the DMV is able to issue an unlimited number of temporary placards for those that have been lost.

Comparatively, the new rule change will have the DMV compare data against the Social Security Administration’s database. It will also only allow up to four temporary placards to be issued in replacement of lost ones every two years. If you have met this limit, then you will have to submit a new application with a new certificate to authenticate your disability.