2023 New York Laws › MHY - Mental Hygiene › Title E - General Provisions › Article 41 - Local Services › 41.49*2 - Community Based Mental Health Services for Seriously Emotionally Disturbed Children.

* § 41.49 Community   based   mental   health   services  for  seriously
emotionally disturbed children.
1. As used in this section:
"Seriously emotionally disturbed children" shall  mean  persons  under
the age of eighteen who have a serious, persistent disability which:
(i) is caused by a medically determined mental illness as evidenced by
a  primary  psychiatric  diagnosis by a physician, or is caused by other
serious  emotional  disturbance  as  defined  by  regulations   of   the
commissioner of mental health;
(ii)  has  continued or is likely to continue for a period of at least
one year;
(iii) would cause substantial risk of psychiatric  hospitalization  in
the absence of community based mental health services; and
(iv)  results  in substantial functional limitations in two or more of
the following areas:  (A)  self-care  at  an  appropriate  developmental
level,   (B)  receptive  and  expressive  language,  (C)  learning,  (D)
self-direction, and (E) capacity for living in a family environment.
2.  The  commissioner  of  mental   health   is   authorized,   within
appropriations made therefor, to make grants to local governmental units
for  one  hundred  percent of the net operating costs of community based
programs approved by his office to serve seriously emotionally disturbed
children. Grants provided under this  section  shall  only  be  used  to
expand  existing  services  or  to  create  new  services  for seriously
emotionally disturbed children and shall not supplant existing  services
for  such  individuals.    The  commissioner  shall promulgate rules and
regulations for the operation and funding of such programs.  Such  rules
and  regulations  shall  include  but not be limited to, eligibility and
program requirements, and standards  for  reimbursement.  Such  programs
shall  be  designed  to  provide  mental  health  services  to seriously
emotionally  disturbed  children  in  the  community  who,  absent  such
services,  would  experience  substantial  risk  of  new  or  additional
psychiatric hospitalization, or would  experience  substantial  risk  of
serious functional disability as a result of their mental illness.
3.  Nothing  in this section shall be deemed to diminish the education
department's  responsibility  for  the  education   of   children   with
handicapping conditions.
4.  Notwithstanding  any  other provision of this article, in order to
qualify for one hundred percent state  aid  pursuant  to  this  section,
local  governmental  units  shall  assure  that  local contributions for
expenditures in any local fiscal year for  local  services  provided  to
mentally ill persons made pursuant to this article, as applicable, shall
be  equal  to  or  greater  than  the  amount  expended  by  such  local
governmental unit in the last complete local fiscal year  preceding  the
effective  date of this section. The commissioner shall be authorized to
reduce payments made to local governmental  units  which  have  received
grants pursuant to this section, in the following local fiscal year, for
failure to maintain expenditures in accordance with this subdivision.
5.  The  commissioner  of  mental  health shall, no later than October
first, nineteen hundred eighty-nine and every year thereafter,  issue  a
report  to the governor and the legislature regarding the implementation
of the section.
* NB There are 2 § 41.49's