(1) The secretary shall establish demonstration sites for statewide implementation of a children's system of care. The demonstration sites shall be selected using the following criteria:

     (a) The system administrator must be the recipient of funding by the federal center for mental health services for the purpose of developing a system of care for children with emotional and behavioral disorders;

     (b) The system administrator must have established a process for ongoing input and coordination from the public health and safety network or networks established in the catchment area of the project; and

     (c) The system administrator may be a project site under a Title IV-E waiver.

     (2) For the purposes of this section, "children's system of care" means a centralized community care coordination system representing a philosophy about the way services should be delivered to children and their families, using existing resources of various child-serving agencies addressing the problems of children with emotional and behavioral disorders. The agencies represented may include providers of mental health services, drug and alcohol services, services for the developmentally disabled, county juvenile justice and state juvenile rehabilitation, child welfare, and special education.

[2002 c 309 § 1.]