These resources provide guidance on critical elements and standards for providing health care to children and youth in out-of-home care.
Caring for Children With Special Health Care Needs
National Resource Center for Health and Safety in Child Care and Early Education
Presents a compilation of best practices for children with special health-care needs and health-care standards applicable to children and youth.
Caring For Our Children Basics: Health and Safety Foundation for Early Care and Education
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children & Families (2020)
Provides access to minimum health and safety standards that should be in place when children are cared for outside of their homes.
Child and Adolescent Mental and Behavioral Health Principles (PDF - 274 KB)
Mental Health America (2021)
Presents a set of mental and behavioral health principles that aim to increase access to evidence-based prevention, early identification, and early intervention; expand mental health services in schools; strengthen the child and adolescent mental and behavioral health workforce; ensure mental health parity; extend access to telehealth; support children in crisis; and address the mental health needs of justice-involved youth.
Children’s Health Care Quality Measures
Medicaid.gov
Shares a core set of children’s health care quality measures, which cover physical and mental health.
Issue Brief 70: Providing Culturally Responsive Mental Health Care for Families: The Role of National CLAS Standards in Reducing Health Disparities
Child Health and Development Institute of Connecticut (2019)
Describes how the National Standards for Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services in Health and Health Care aim to improve the quality of services provided to all families to reduce health disparities and achieve health equity.
Measurement & Standards
Children’s Hospital Association
Provides information on quality measures and advocacy initiatives to help children’s hospitals to provide the best possible outcomes to children.
National Care Coordination Standards for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs
National Academy for State Health Policy (2020)
Presents standards for health-care coordination for children and youth relating to screening, identification, and assessment; shared plan of care; team-based communication; child and family empowerment and skills development; workforce coordination; and care transitions.
National Standards for Systems of Care for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs
Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs and the National Academy for State Health Policy
Offers a set of structure and process standards for systems of care for children and youth with special health care needs.
Toolkit: National Standards for Children and Youth With Special Health Care Needs
National Academy for State Health Policy (2020)
Presents a toolkit that provides access to tools, fact sheets, and other resources that States can use to design and strengthen health care systems serving special needs children and families.