DENVER—Colorado is extending a program to treat children with serious mental illness.
Gov. Bill Ritter signed Senate Bill 30 into law Thursday, extending the Child Mental Health Treatment Act for another 10 years.
The program was created in 1999. It allows parents to get more intensive treatment for children without going through the courts. That can mean a several-month stay in a residential treatment center or outpatient treatment that allows them to remain at home.
Previously, the only way for children to get such care was for their parents to go to court and claim to be unfit parents.
Medicaid pays for the care and parents pay for any room and board on a sliding scale.
The bill was sponsored by Sen. Moe Keller and Rep. Sue Schafer.
