(a) (1) For purposes of this section, “early childhood mental health consultation service” means a service benefiting a child who is served in a California state preschool program, an infant or toddler who is 0 to 36 months of age and is served in a general child care and development program pursuant to this chapter, or a child who is 0 to 5 years of age and is served in a family child care home education network setting funded by a general child care and development program pursuant to this chapter.

(2) For purposes of this section, “early childhood mental health consultation service” includes, but is not limited to, all of the following:

(A) Support to respond effectively to all children, with a focus on young children with disabilities, challenging behaviors, and other special needs.

(B) Assistance through individual site consultations, provision of resources, formulation of training plans, referrals, and other methods that address the unique needs of programs and providers.

(C) Aid to providers in developing the skills and tools needed to be successful as they support the development and early learning of all children, including observing environments, facilitating the development of action plans, and supporting site implementation of those plans.

(D) The development of strategies for addressing prevalent child mental health concerns, including internalizing problems, such as appearing withdrawn, and externalizing problems, such as exhibiting challenging behaviors.

(E) If a child exhibits persistent and serious challenging behaviors, support with the pursuit and documentation of reasonable steps to maintain the child’s safe participation in the program, as described in Section 8239.1.

(b) The cost to a provider agency of providing an early childhood mental health consultation service shall be reimbursable pursuant to Section 8265.5 if all of the following apply:

(1) The early childhood mental health consultation service is provided on a schedule of sufficient and consistent frequency to ensure that a mental health consultant is available to partner with staff and families in a timely and effective manner, as determined by the department.

(2) The early childhood mental health consultation service is supervised and provided by a licensed marriage and family therapist, a licensed clinical social worker, a licensed professional clinical counselor, a licensed psychologist, a licensed child and adolescent psychiatrist, or others as determined by the department. The supervisor shall have at least three years of experience working with children 0 to 5 years of age, shall be adequately insured, shall have held his or her respective license for a minimum of two years, and shall be in full compliance with all continuing education requirements applicable to his or her profession.

(3) The early childhood mental health consultation service uses a relationship-based model emphasizing strengthening relationships among early childhood education providers, parents, children, and representatives of community systems and resources, and integrates reflective practice into the onsite consultation model.

(Added by Stats. 2018, Ch. 946, Sec. 2. (AB 2698) Effective January 1, 2019.)