Section 26-5-117 - Out-of-home placement for children and youth with mental or behavioral needs - funding - report - rules - legislative declaration - definitions - repeal(1)(a) The general assembly finds and declares that:(I) The COVID-19 pandemic has lead to an emergency need for increased placements for children and youth with behavioral or mental health needs, including those involved with the child welfare system; and(II) As the state works to transition to the critical requirements of the federal "Family First Prevention Services Act", it must ensure a smooth transition by helping existing residential child care facilities transition to qualified residential treatment programs or psychiatric residential treatment facilities.(b) Therefore, the general assembly declares that the state should provide resources to qualified residential treatment programs, psychiatric residential treatment facilities, or therapeutic foster care providers to address this emergency situation and ensure there are high-quality providers available to meet these needs.(2)(a) The state department shall develop a program to provide emergency resources to licensed providers to help remove barriers such providers face in serving children and youth whose behavioral or mental health needs require services and treatment in a residential child care facility. Any such licensed provider shall meet the requirements of a qualified residential treatment program, as defined in section 26-5.4-102; a psychiatric residential treatment facility, as defined in section 25.5-4-103 (19.5); treatment foster care; or therapeutic foster care.(a.5)(I) No later than July 1, 2023, the state department, in collaboration with the department of health care policy and financing and other relevant stakeholders, including stakeholders that represent individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, shall form a working group to make recommendations about developing an incentive funding pool pilot program to incentivize residential treatment providers to accept and treat children and youth who are under twenty-one years of age and have high-acuity behavioral health needs or other common barriers to appropriate treatment and placement, including the presence of co-occurring disabilities.(II) In developing the incentive funding pool, the state department may consider providing an enhanced payment, in addition to any daily bed rate authorized and paid for by public funding, and authorizing the funding pool to be used to extend and expand access to care pursuant to subsection (2)(b)(I) of this section.(III) No later than October 1, 2023, the working group shall submit its recommendations to the joint budget committee.(b)(I) Beginning July 1, 2022, the state department shall provide ongoing operational support for psychiatric residential treatment facilities, therapeutic foster care, treatment foster care, and qualified residential treatment programs as described in subsection (2)(a) of this section.(III) The use of money appropriated pursuant to this subsection (2) must conform with the allowable purposes set forth in the federal "American Rescue Plan Act of 2021", Pub.L. 117-2, as amended. The state department shall spend or obligate such appropriation in accordance with section 24-75-226 (4)(d).(IV) This subsection (2)(b) is repealed, effective September 1, 2027.(c) The state department and any person who receives money from the state department shall comply with the compliance, reporting, record-keeping, and program evaluation requirements established by the office of state planning and budgeting and the state controller in accordance with section 24-75-226 (5).(d) No later than January 1, 2025, and subject to available appropriations, the state department shall expand the number of treatment beds available under the program created pursuant to subsection (2)(a) of this section.(4)(a) The state department shall contract with licensed providers for the delivery of services to children and youth who are determined eligible for and placed in the program. A provider that contracts with the state department shall not: (I) Deny admittance of a child or youth if the child or youth otherwise meets the eligibility criteria for the program; or(II) Discharge a child or youth based on the severity or complexity of the child's or youth's physical, behavioral, or mental health needs; except that the state department may arrange for the placement of a child or youth with an alternate contracted provider if the placement with the alternate provider is better suited to deliver services that meet the needs of the child or youth.(b) The state department shall reimburse a provider directly for the costs associated with the placement of a child or youth in the program for the duration of the treatment, including the costs the provider demonstrates are necessary in order for the provider to operate continuously during this period.(c) The state department shall coordinate with the department of health care policy and financing to support continuity of care and payment for services for any children or youth placed in the program.(d) The state department shall reimburse the provider one hundred percent of the cost of unutilized beds in the program to ensure available space for emergency residential out-of-home placements.(5)(a) A hospital, health-care provider, provider of case management services, school district, managed care entity, or state or county department of human or social services may refer a family for the placement of a child or youth in the program. The entity referring a child or youth for placement in the program shall submit or assist the family with submitting an application to the state department for review. The state department shall consider each application as space becomes available. The state department shall approve admissions into the program and determine admission and discharge criteria for placement.(b) The state department shall develop a discharge plan for each child or youth placed in the program. The plan must include the eligible period of placement of the child or youth and must identify the entity that will be responsible for the placement costs if the child or youth remains with the provider beyond the date of eligibility identified in the plan.(c) The entity or family that places the child or youth in the program retains the right to remove the child or youth from the program any time prior to the discharge date specified by the state department.(6) As used in this section, unless the context otherwise requires:(a) "Family advocate" means a parent or primary caregiver who: (I) Has been trained in a system-of-care approach to assist families in accessing and receiving services and supports;(II) Has raised or cared for a child or adolescent with a mental health or co-occurring disorder; and(III) Has worked with multiple agencies and providers, such as mental health, physical health, substance abuse, juvenile justice, developmental disabilities, education, and other state and local service systems.(b) "Family systems navigator" means an individual who:(I) Has been trained in a system-of-care approach to assist families in accessing and receiving services and supports;(II) Has the skills, experience, and knowledge to work with children and youth with mental health or co-occurring disorders; and(III) Has worked with multiple agencies and providers, including mental health, physical health, substance abuse, juvenile justice, developmental disabilities, education, and other state and local service systems.(10) The state department shall analyze the location of existing capacity of specialized foster care settings across the state, where gaps exist, and barriers to expanding specialized foster care settings and provide recommendations to achieve network adequacy of specialized foster care supports statewide.(11)(a) Subject to available appropriations, the state department and the behavioral health administration shall increase the minimum reimbursement rates paid to qualified residential treatment programs for the purpose of aligning room and board payments across payer sources.(b) The behavioral health administration shall reimburse qualified residential treatment program providers for the cost of room and board pursuant to subsection (11)(a) of this section for children and youth who are eligible for the state medical assistance program but not in the custody of a county child welfare agency.(12) No later than December 31, 2025, and subject to available appropriations, the state department shall contract with one or more third-party vendors to implement a pilot program to assess the needs of, and provide short-term residential services for, juvenile justice-involved youth who do not meet the criteria for detention pursuant to sections 19-2.5-303 and 19-2.5-304.(13)(a) No later than September 15, 2024, and subject to available appropriations, the state department shall contract with additional licensed providers for the delivery of services to children and youth who are determined eligible for and placed in the program created pursuant to subsection (2)(a) of this section.(b) To the extent such data is available, the state department shall base its efforts to contract with additional licensed providers on an analysis of the Colorado child and adolescent needs and strengths data from independent assessments for children and youth who are boarding in a hospital, in a stopgap county department of human or social services office or hotel, or in a detention setting, and who are involved with the state-level multi-agency child and youth consultant team because they were denied care from a residential child care provider. Any information received and analyzed pursuant to this subsection (13)(b) must be de-identified and aggregated to maintain confidentiality and privacy of each child and youth.Amended by 2024 Ch. 459,§ 3, eff. 6/6/2024.Amended by 2024 Ch. 429,§ 32, eff. 6/5/2024.Amended by 2023 Ch. 377,§ 3, eff. 6/5/2023.Amended by 2023 Ch. 206,§ 16, eff. 5/16/2023.Amended by 2022 Ch. 222, § 214, eff. 7/1/2022.Renumbered from section 27-60-113 and amended by 2022 Ch. 185, § 2, eff. 5/18/2022.Added by 2021 Ch. 362, § 17, eff. 6/28/2021.L. 2021: Entire section added, (SB 21-137), ch. 2371, p. 2371, § 17, effective June 28.This section is similar to former § 27-60-113 as it existed prior to 2022.
For the legislative declaration in HB 22-1283, see section 1 of chapter 185, Session Laws of Colorado 2022. For the legislative declaration in HB 24-1466, see section 1 of chapter 429, Session Laws of Colorado 2024.