§ 16-2426A — SERIOUS BEHAVIORAL HEALTH CONDITIONS — PREVENTION OF REMOVAL FROM CUSTODY

(1) The department shall not make a substantiated disposition that a child has been abused, neglected, or abandoned by a parent or guardian under the child protective act, chapter 16, title 16, Idaho Code, because of a request for inpatient hospital treatment or an out-of-home placement for the child, if the child’s recent mental health condition demonstrates that the child is likely to cause harm to himself or to suffer substantial mental or physical deterioration, and/or is likely to cause harm to others, and if the risk cannot be eliminated before returning the child to the child’s family.
(2) In order to intercept and divert children at risk of being removed from their parent’s or guardian’s custody under chapter 16, title 16, Idaho Code, the department, within one hundred eighty (180) days after the effective date of this section, shall enter into an interagency agreement with appropriate agencies for the purpose of preventing children who are not otherwise abused or neglected from entering the custody of the department for purposes of receiving services for serious emotional disturbance. The interagency agreement shall require the department to establish an interagency clinical team to review cases of children who are at the hospital or another similar treatment facility and to connect the child and his family with the appropriate services, treatment, and support in order to stabilize the child’s serious emotional disturbance and to prevent removal by the department under chapter 16, title 16, Idaho Code.

Legislative History

[16-2426A, added 2021, ch. 147, sec. 1, p. 399.]