The Legislation
In 2016, New Hampshire enacted Senate Bill 534, a key policy effort of the Children's Behavioral Health Collaborative that wrote the system of care approach and its core values into RSA 135-F. Under this law, the State must build and sustain an integrated, comprehensive service delivery system for children with behavioral health needs. A System of Care is a behavioral health approach built on a coordinated network of effective community-based services and supports, offering a wide range of individualized services that help children and youth do better at home, at school, in the community, and throughout life.
Read the full text of RSA 135-F
The System of Care Law lays out the steps for building a comprehensive, integrated system of care for New Hampshire children and is a foundation for the work of the Collaborative and its State partners at the Department of Education (DOE) and Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Progress to Date
Senate Bill 14, signed into law on June 3, 2019, expands on RSA 135-F and on years of effort to build New Hampshire's System of Care for children's behavioral health. A key policy initiative of the New Hampshire Children's Behavioral Health Collaborative, Senate Bill 14 reshapes the State's child- and family-serving system around the System of Care Framework recommended in the July 2018 New Hampshire Division for Children, Youth, and Families Adequacy and Enhancement Assessment.
Read a summary of Senate Bill 14
The law also directs the DOE and DHHS to issue annual reports on the State's progress in building a System of Care. To date, three reports have been released:
Year One Report
Year Two Report
Year Three Report
Year Two Report issued January 2018:
Report: Incremental progress on kids' mental health system
Year One Report issued January 2017:
Year One Report, a System of Care Approach
Bill passed May 2016:
Key Collaborative Bill Passes Final Legislative Hurdle
Bill introduced January 2016:
Legislation Focuses Attention on Children's Mental Health