Interagency Resolution Unit

What is the role of the Council on Children and Families in securing services for children and youth with complex conditions?

The Council receives referrals about helping to facilitate services for children and youth with complex conditions. The primary objectives for such referrals is to ensure that individual children and youth receive the most appropriate community-based or residential services at the least restrictive level, and to resolve interagency service disputes.

The Council receives referrals for resolution from a variety of sources, including parents, children’s advocates, county Departments of Social Services, Committees on Special Education, county Probation Departments, state agencies, the Governor’s Office, and Senate and Assembly staff, and moves swiftly to resolve each case.

In addition to the resolution of specific case disputes, Council staff:

• work closely with agencies on system reforms to improve service delivery;
• monitor the frequency and severity of cases referred for resolution to determine policy or program implications requiring interagency state-level intervention;
• track the reliance and utilization of in-state and out-of-state residential placements by localities and school districts in New York State; and
• maintain a database system on hard-to-place/hard-to-serve referrals.

Who is considered a child with complex conditions?

A child with complex conditions is a child under the age of 21 with one or more physical, mental, emotional or social disabilities, who has not received appropriate residential services after reasonable and diligent efforts have been taken to locate such services. A child with complex conditions is a child under the age of 21 with one or more physical, mental, emotional or social disabilities who is able, with assistance of services from multiple service providers, to remain in his or her own home or other community setting, but whose family has been unable to secure needed services.

How does the Council on Children and Families become involved?

The Council’s Interagency Resolution Unit will become involved in a referral only after available program options and dispute resolution procedures have been exhausted at the local and regional levels.

If there is no cross-sector committee or network within a county, referrals can be made directly to the Council.

How is a referral submitted to the Council?

The agent making a referral on behalf of a child must provide the Council with a description of the barriers encountered in attempting to provide appropriate services or placement, a record of the efforts that have been made by the referral source or others to secure services and/or placements for the child, as well as background information on the child's special needs.

A referral containing all of the information mentioned above may be submitted to: