When a young person with an intellectual or developmental disability approaches 18, many Oregon families hear the same advice from well-meaning people: you need to get guardianship.
Sometimes guardianship truly is the right tool. But it is also one of the most restrictive legal steps a family can take — it removes decision-making rights from an adult, and it can be difficult to undo. Oregon law and national best practice now point families toward a different starting question: what is the least restrictive option that keeps this person safe and supported?
For a growing number of families, part of the answer is supported decision-making. This article explains what it is, what Oregon law says, and how to think about the choice.
One thing before we start: this is general information, not legal advice. Decisions about guardianship and its alternatives deserve individual guidance — from an attorney, from Disability Rights Oregon, or from your county developmental disabilities program.
What Supported Decision-Making Is
Supported decision-making means exactly what it sounds like: a person makes their own choices about their own life, with support from trusted people they choose.
The person picks their supporters — family members, friends, professionals — and decides how they want to be supported. Supporters help the person gather information, weigh options, and communicate the decision to others. The decision itself stays with the person.
Here is the part that reframes the whole conversation: everyone uses supported decision-making. When you ask a friend to look over a lease, call your sibling before a big purchase, or bring someone to a daunting medical appointment, you are making a supported decision. Nobody concludes you need a guardian. For individuals with I/DD, supported decision-making simply makes that universal human practice deliberate and recognized.
What Oregon Law Says
Oregon explicitly recognized supported decision-making through House Bill 2105, which took effect January 1, 2022.
The law did two important things for families:
- It requires schools to provide information, training, and resources on supported decision-making — at minimum, at every IEP meeting where post-high-school goals and transition services are discussed.
- It put supported decision-making plainly into Oregon law, so that health care workers, schools, agencies, courts, and other entities recognize the role of a chosen supporter.
The intent, in the state's own framing, is to make sure families know the less restrictive option exists before reaching for guardianship — because guardianship is very restrictive and can be difficult to undo. If your family is in transition-age IEP meetings right now, your school district is required to put this topic on the table.
How It Compares to Guardianship
The two tools sit at opposite ends of a spectrum.
Under guardianship, a court appoints someone to make decisions for the person — depending on the order, that can include where they live, medical care, and more. The person's own legal authority over those areas is removed.
Under supported decision-making, the person keeps all of their rights. Supporters advise, explain, and help communicate — but the signature, the choice, and the authority remain the person's own.
Between the two ends sit other tools worth knowing about: powers of attorney, health care representatives, representative payees for benefits, joint bank accounts, and release-of-information forms. Many families discover that a thoughtful combination of these covers the real risks they were worried about — without a court removing anyone's rights.
Why Less Restrictive Matters
This is not just legal philosophy. The national research is consistent: people who make their own decisions have better outcomes — they are more independent, more integrated into their communities, more likely to be employed, healthier, and better able to recognize and resist abuse.
That last one surprises families most. The protective instinct behind guardianship is real and loving. But decision-making is a skill, and like any skill it grows with practice and withers without it. A person who practices choices — with support, with occasional mistakes, with people who help them think it through — is building exactly the muscle that keeps them safer for the rest of their life.
What Supported Decision-Making Looks Like Day to Day
In practice, supported decision-making is less about paperwork and more about habits. A few examples of what it can look like:
- Before a medical appointment, a supporter helps the person write down their questions — and in the room, the provider talks to the person, not over them.
- For a housing choice, supporters help compare two options with photos and a simple pros-and-cons list, and the person decides.
- For money decisions, a trusted supporter reviews larger purchases with the person, while day-to-day spending stays in the person's hands.
- At an ISP meeting, the person leads with the goals that matter to them, with supporters helping communicate the details.
If you already receive services, you have felt the same principle at work: person-centered planning is supported decision-making applied to services. The person's preferences drive the plan; the team supports the person's direction.
Questions Families Should Ask Before Choosing Guardianship
If you are weighing this decision as your family member approaches adulthood, these questions can anchor the conversation:
- What specific decisions are we actually worried about? Health? Money? Safety online? Name them one by one.
- For each worry, is there a less restrictive tool that covers it?
- What decisions is the person already making well with support?
- Have we asked the person what help they want, and from whom?
- If we do pursue guardianship, can it be limited to only the areas of genuine need rather than covering everything?
- Who can advise us? An attorney, Disability Rights Oregon, or our county developmental disabilities program are the right doors to knock on.
There are situations where a court process is genuinely needed, and families who reach that conclusion carefully are not doing anything wrong. The mistake is skipping the questions — signing up for the most restrictive option because it was the only one anyone mentioned.
How to Start
A gentle path into supported decision-making:
- Start the conversation with the person: what decisions do you want help with, and who do you want helping?
- Write it down — who supports what, and how. Putting the arrangement on paper makes it easier for doctors, schools, and agencies to recognize supporters.
- Practice on low-stakes decisions first and build up.
- Bring it to the IEP or ISP team so the plan reflects how the person makes decisions.
- Revisit it yearly. Support needs change; the arrangement should too.
Oregon's Department of Human Services publishes supported decision-making resources, and Disability Rights Oregon offers guidance on guardianship and its alternatives — both are good next stops for families who want to go deeper.
North Star Oregon provides person-centered support services for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities across Oregon — services built on the same principle supported decision-making protects: the person’s own choices lead, and the people around them support. If you are navigating the transition to adult services, reach out and we will help you find your bearings.