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Idaho Statutes
Idaho Statutes are updated to the website July 1 following the legislative session.
JUVENILE PROCEEDINGS
CHAPTER 24
CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
16-2407. Voluntary admission to hospital or residential treatment facility. When the department provides services under this chapter, such services shall be provided on a voluntary basis whenever informed consent can be obtained, and the department shall ensure that services made available to children subject to involuntary treatment orders are also available on a comparable basis to children seeking services on a voluntary basis.
(1) Admission of children. A treatment facility may admit a child after examining the child and interviewing the family, if a clinician with authority to admit patients to the facility determines that the child is seriously emotionally disturbed and is in need of hospitalization or residential services and, the child’s parent, custodian or guardian give such consent to treatment. Prior to such admission, the child and his parent, custodian or guardian shall be advised orally and given a written statement of his rights under this chapter as provided in section 16-2426, Idaho Code, provided that, if the condition of the child is such that notice and advice of his rights would be ineffective, and this determination is recorded in the child’s record, such advice to the child may be deferred until the child’s mental and emotional condition permits, but for no more than forty-eight (48) hours. Each child and parent shall be asked to sign an acknowledgment that they have been so advised, and this acknowledgment shall be kept in the child’s record.
(2) A child shall not be voluntarily admitted to a facility operated by the department unless evaluated and referred by a person on the staff of the regional family and children’s services program.
(3) When a child is in a voluntary, out-of-home placement which is funded in whole or in part by state or federal funds, the department may have the propriety of the placement reviewed by the district court of the county in which the child is placed or the county of the child’s residence every one hundred eighty (180) days after placement or as required by statutes which govern federal funding for children who are placed out of their homes.
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