§ 42-72.7-5. Funding. (a) There is established a fund within the department of children, youth, and families to be allocated to each of the two (2) pilot program local coordinating councils in Pawtucket/Central Falls and Washington County. This fund shall be comprised of the proportional share of funds utilized during the current fiscal year for the residential treatment of children who reside in the communities which comprise each of the two (2) pilot program local coordinating councils, which treatment is required not due to abuse or neglect of those children. The sources of these funds will include those funds previously utilized by the department of children, youth, and families, the department of elementary and secondary education, the department of behavioral healthcare, developmental disabilities and hospitals, the department of human services, or other agency of state government which receives state or federal funds for children, and state education funds distributed to local education authorities, to meet the programming needs of the children who are receiving residential services, not due to abuse or neglect, and who are residents of the communities which comprise each of the two (2) pilot program local coordinating councils. This fund shall be assigned on a proportional basis to the two (2) pilot program local coordinating councils. This fund shall be expended for public or private nonresidential or residential services for children and their families who reside in the communities which comprise each of the two (2) pilot program local coordinating councils, and who are in need of education, care, and treatment.

(b) The principles and purposes of organizing the locally administered merged funding for coordinated community social service, education, and mental health services for children in need of education, care, and treatment and their families are as follows:

(1) To place authority for making program and funding decisions at the community level;

(2) To consolidate categorical funding and institute community responsibility for the provision of a full continuum of services;

(3) To provide flexibility in the use of funds to purchase services based on the strengths and needs of children in need of education, care, and treatment and their families;

(4) To reduce disparity in accessing services and to reduce fiscal incentives for serving children in particular placements and services not necessarily directly responsive to their identified individual needs;

(5) To ensure that the funding "follows the child" and that any savings realized through the implementation of this chapter be applied to the continuing development and refinement of an appropriate continuum of community-based children's services;

(6) To ensure that funding of services for children in need of education, care, and treatment and their families is based upon the achievement of specific agreed upon performance outcomes for children and families receiving those services; and

(7) To create an equitable, stable, and consistent allocation of funding responsibility between state and local governmental agencies sharing responsibility for children and families.

History of Section. (P.L. 1998, ch. 69, § 1; P.L. 1998, ch. 415, § 1.)