4095. (Amended by Stats. 2025, Ch. 67, Sec. 189.)

(b) Therefore, using the Children’s Mental Health Services Act (Part 4 (commencing with Section 5850) of Division 5) as a guideline, the State Department of Health Care Services, in consultation with the County Behavioral Health Directors Association of California, the State Department of Social Services, the County Welfare Directors Association of California, the Chief Probation Officers of California, and foster care providers, shall do all of the following:

(1) By July 1, 1994, develop an individualized mental health treatment needs assessment protocol for wards of the court and dependent children of the court.

(2) Define supplemental services to be made available to the target population, including, but not limited to, services defined in Article 4 (commencing with Section 540) of Title 9 of the California Code of Regulations as of January 1, 1994, family therapy, prevocational services, and crisis support activities.

(3) Establish statewide standardized rates for the various types of services defined by the department in accordance with paragraph (2), and provided pursuant to this section. The rates shall be designed to reduce the impact of competition for scarce treatment resources on the cost and availability of care. The rates shall be implemented only when the state provides funding for the services described in this section.

(4) By January 1, 1994, to the extent state funds are available to implement this section, establish, by regulation, all of the following:

(A) Definitions of priority ranking of subsets of the court wards and dependents target population.

(B) A procedure to certify the mental health programs.

(c) (1) Only those individuals within the target population as defined in regulation and determined to be eligible for services as a result of a mental health treatment needs assessment may receive services pursuant to this section.

(2) Allocation of funds appropriated for the purposes of this section shall be based on the number of wards and dependents and may be adjusted in subsequent fiscal years to reflect costs.

(3) The counties shall be held harmless for failure to provide any assessment, case management, and treatment services to those children identified in need of services for whom there is no funding.