Robert Gordon Home Care Policy Analyst, AHVA  |  Published June 8, 2026  |  10 min read

California Care Corps Ends July 1, 2026: What Orange County Dementia Families Must Do Right Now

Three years ago, Maria Torres of Irvine was drowning. Her mother, 81-year-old Gloria, had been diagnosed with moderate Alzheimer’s disease eighteen months earlier. Maria had reduced her work hours, sacrificed weekends, and barely slept through the night. Then a program called the California Care Corps matched her with a trained volunteer named Daniel, a recent high school graduate earning a small stipend while taking a gap year before college. Every Tuesday and Thursday, Daniel would arrive at Maria’s home, sit with Gloria, look at photo albums, go for short walks, and let Maria sleep, exercise, and breathe.

On July 1, 2026 — 23 days from today — that program officially ends.

The California Care Corps, established by AB 568 (Assemblywoman Eloise Gomez Reyes, D), was always designed as a pilot. Its mandate from California Volunteers: incentivize young adults to spend one to two years providing non-medical respite care to family caregivers of people with dementia. The sunset date was written into the law from the beginning. But most families using the program don’t know it’s expiring. And almost none of them have a plan for what comes next.

This guide is for Orange County families who relied — or are relying — on the Care Corps, and for the larger population of OC dementia caregivers who have never had this support but need it just as urgently.

What Was the California Care Corps?

The Care Corps operated through nonprofit grantees who recruited, trained, and placed young volunteers — typically adults aged 18-24 who had recently graduated high school — with families caring for someone with dementia. Volunteers received a living stipend from the state and, in some cases, an educational award similar to the AmeriCorps model. In exchange, they committed to one to two years of consistent service, typically five to fifteen hours per week per family.

What made the Care Corps different from other respite programs was its workforce-development dual purpose. It simultaneously relieved family caregiver burden and prepared a generation of young adults for careers in healthcare and elder care — two of California’s most chronically understaffed sectors. For families, the practical benefit was simple: a trained, background-checked young person who came regularly, engaged meaningfully with their loved one, and gave the primary caregiver genuine time off.

In Orange County, Care Corps grantees included community nonprofits and Aging Services organizations that coordinated placements for families in cities from Anaheim to Newport Beach to Mission Viejo. Families who qualified could access the service at no cost — funded entirely through the state grant.

What Exactly Ends on July 1?

The AB 568 statute is clear: “The Chief Service Officer shall administer the pilot program until July 1, 2026.” This is not a budget cut that might be reversed. It is not a pause pending reauthorization. The program has a statutory end date, and unless new legislation extends or replaces it — nothing currently pending in Sacramento does — the Care Corps ceases operations on that date.

What this means in practice:

• Volunteer placements end. Any active Care Corps volunteer serving an OC family will complete their assignment no later than July 1. Grantees are expected to begin transitioning families off the program now.
• New referrals stop immediately. Families who have been on waitlists or recently applied will not be enrolled.
• Stipends end for volunteers. Young adults currently serving will lose their Care Corps stipend income and educational award eligibility.
• The gap it leaves is real. Unless Orange County families act now to find funded alternatives, they will face the full weight of dementia caregiving without the relief the Care Corps provided.

Who Is Affected in Orange County?

Orange County has approximately 89,000 residents living with Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia, according to Alzheimer’s Orange County. Most — roughly 70 percent — are cared for primarily by unpaid family members, typically adult children. The average family caregiver of a person with dementia provides 47 hours of direct care per week, which is the equivalent of a full-time job on top of whatever else they are managing.

The families most at risk when the Care Corps ends fall into several categories in OC:

• Working caregivers in cities like Irvine, Costa Mesa, and Fountain Valley who used Care Corps respite to keep their jobs while managing a parent’s care.
• Spouse caregivers in their 70s and 80s, common in senior-heavy cities like Laguna Woods, Leisure World, and Mission Viejo, who are themselves aging and cannot sustain 24-hour care alone.
• Single-parent caregivers throughout Anaheim, Santa Ana, and Garden Grove who have no second caregiver in the home and relied on Care Corps visits as their only break.
• Immigrant families in the Westminster Little Saigon corridor and the Korean community of Garden Grove and Buena Park, where cultural norms against facility care make community-based home respite especially critical.

If your family falls into any of these groups and you have been using the Care Corps — or have been hoping to access it — the following six alternatives are your primary options. Most involve navigating bureaucracies. Start now.

6 Funded Alternatives for OC Dementia Families After the Care Corps

A note on the FCSP program specifically: the Family Caregiver Support Program is significantly underutilized in OC because families don’t know it exists. Funded through the federal Older Americans Act, it provides up to 120 hours per year of subsidized respite care at little or no cost to the family, with a priority on caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. The OC Area Agency on Aging administers it — and their waitlist, as of this writing, is shorter than most people expect.

The IHSS Respite Gap: What Families Must Understand

Many OC families assume that once the Care Corps ends, IHSS will absorb the gap. That assumption is only partly correct, and it comes with significant caveats.

IHSS does provide in-home respite hours — but access depends entirely on your loved one’s functional assessment and Medi-Cal eligibility. If your family member with dementia is not yet on Medi-Cal, or has not been assessed under IHSS in the past two years, you may be waiting months to access any funded hours. In Orange County, initial IHSS assessments currently run six to ten weeks from application to first visit.

Additionally, IHSS respite care is tied to the recipient’s needs — not the caregiver’s. A person with early-stage dementia who is relatively independent may qualify for fewer hours than families expect. And the ongoing California state budget debate over the IHSS Backup Provider System — which we covered in detail at our IHSS backup provider article — adds further uncertainty to the system.

How Professional In-Home Care Bridges the Gap

The Care Corps provided volunteer respite. Professional in-home care agencies like At Home VA Staffing provide trained, insured, consistent non-medical care that goes considerably further in scope. Our caregivers are background-checked, trained in dementia care techniques, and available for as little as four hours per visit or on full live-in schedules — whatever the family needs.

For families transitioning off the Care Corps, AHVA offers several options in Orange County:

• Respite care — a professional caregiver comes to your home so you can leave, sleep, work, or simply decompress. Minimum four-hour visits, scheduled in advance.
• Dementia companionship care — specialized caregiver who uses evidence-based engagement techniques, maintains familiar routines, and reduces agitation common in moderate-to-late-stage Alzheimer’s.
• Personal care assistance — bathing, dressing, grooming, meal preparation, and medication reminders. Everything a Care Corps volunteer was not permitted to do.
• Coordination with FCSP and CalOptima — we work with funded programs to help families minimize out-of-pocket costs wherever possible.

We serve families throughout Orange County including Irvine, Anaheim, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Newport Beach, Mission Viejo, Costa Mesa, Orange, Tustin, Yorba Linda, Laguna Hills, Aliso Viejo, Lake Forest, Laguna Beach, Dana Point, Garden Grove, Westminster, Buena Park, Brea, Placentia, Fountain Valley, Stanton, Cypress, Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, La Habra, La Palma, Villa Park, Rancho Santa Margarita, San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente, Laguna Niguel, and Laguna Woods.

Your Action Checklist: What to Do Before July 1

Test Your Knowledge: Care Corps Alternatives Quiz

Frequently Asked Questions