§321D-1  Interdepartmental cluster forservices to children; establishment, functions.  (a)  There is establisheda statewide interdepartmental cluster for services to children within thedepartment of health which shall be comprised of representatives of majorchild-serving agencies with statewide authority and responsibility.  Thecluster shall include the department of education, the department of health,the department of human services, the judiciary, the office of the governor,and the office of youth services as regular members.  The department of healthshall staff the cluster and provide an identified place where development andcoordination of service plans and programs for the multisystem children havingsevere emotional and developmental problems may be done on a systematic basis.

(b)  The statewide interdepartmental clustershall:

(1)  Establish interdepartmental clusters at the locallevel;

(2)  Establish written policies and procedures forboth itself and the local clusters;

(3)  Review and make recommendations on individualcases referred by local clusters or by directors of child-serving departmentsor agencies that have documentation that various county or local agencies havejointly attempted to develop programs and funding to meet the child's need, andthat existing or alternative programs and funding have been exhausted or areinsufficient or inappropriate in view of the distinctive nature of the child'ssituation;

(4)  Develop written, comprehensive, and coordinatedservice plans for individual multineeds children for implementation by localclusters and, where required, utilize funds appropriated to it to assist localclusters in implementing such plans;

(5)  Identify a single local agency to provide casemanagement for each case accepted by the statewide cluster;

(6)  Monitor each case; and

(7)  Adjust policies and procedures and developtraining which will ensure appropriate services for multisystem involvedchildren at both the state and local levels. [L 1987, c 342, §2; am L 1988, c 141,§25; am L 1993, c 38, §1; am L 1996, c 298, §4]