New York Laws
Article 31 - Regulation and Quality Control of Services for the Mentally Disabled
31.26 - Residential Treatment Facilities for Children and Youth.

(a) The commissioner may authorize the operation of residential
treatment facilities for children and youth. Such residential treatment
facilities may only be operated by not-for-profit organizations.
(b) The commissioner shall have the power to adopt rules and
regulations governing the establishment and operation of residential
treatment facilities for children and youth. Such rules and regulations
shall at least require, as a condition of issuance or retention of an
operating certificate for a residential treatment facility for children
and youth, that admission of children into such facilities be in
accordance with priorities for admission of children most immediately in
need of such services in accordance with standards established by the
commissioner which shall be in accordance with federal regulations.
(c) The commissioner, in consultation with the commissioner of
education and the commissioner of the office of children and family
services, shall adopt rules and regulations governing the standards for
admissions of individuals to residential treatment facilities required
in section 9.51 of this chapter in accordance with federal regulations.
(d) The commissioner of mental health and the commissioner of social
services shall enter into a cooperative agreement to govern the
operation of residential treatment facilities for children and youth by
an authorized agency, visitation, inspection and supervision of such
facilities, enforcement of the conditions of operating certificates
issued to such facilities by the department of social services and the
office of mental health, and protection of the confidentiality of
clinical information regarding patients at such residential treatment
facilities.
(e) The office of mental health, the department of social services and
the department of education shall establish a uniform system by which
authorized agencies which operate residential treatment facilities for
children and youth report the cost of operating such facilities.
(f) The office of mental health shall, in accordance with the
provisions of section four thousand four of the education law, be
responsible for paying the tuition costs for children who are receiving
care in a residential treatment facility for children and youth if such
children are residents of this state and such children were not placed
in such a facility by a school district, social services district, the
division for youth or the family court.