Section 31.26. Residential treatment facilities for children and youth

(a)  The  commissioner  may  authorize  the  operation  of residential
  treatment facilities for children and youth. Such residential  treatment
  facilities may only be operated by not-for-profit organizations.
    (b)  The  commissioner  shall  have  the  power  to  adopt  rules  and
  regulations governing the establishment  and  operation  of  residential
  treatment  facilities for children and youth. Such rules and regulations
  shall at least require, as a condition of issuance or  retention  of  an
  operating  certificate for a residential treatment facility for children
  and youth, that  admission  of  children  into  such  facilities  be  in
  accordance with priorities for admission of children most immediately in
  need  of  such  services  established by the pre-admission certification
  committee serving the facility, in accordance with section 9.51 of  this
  chapter.
    (c) The commissioner and the commissioner of social services shall, in
  consultation  with the commissioner of education and the director of the
  division for youth, adopt rules and regulations governing the  operation
  of  the  pre-admission certification committees required in section 9.51
  of this chapter.
    (d) The commissioner of mental health and the commissioner  of  social
  services  shall  enter  into  a  cooperative  agreement  to  govern  the
  operation of residential treatment facilities for children and youth  by
  an  authorized  agency,  visitation,  inspection and supervision of such
  facilities, enforcement of  the  conditions  of  operating  certificates
  issued  to  such facilities by the department of social services and the
  office of mental  health,  and  protection  of  the  confidentiality  of
  clinical  information  regarding  patients at such residential treatment
  facilities.
    (e) The office of mental health, the department of social services and
  the department of education shall establish a uniform  system  by  which
  authorized  agencies  which operate residential treatment facilities for
  children and youth report the cost of operating such facilities.
    (f) The  office  of  mental  health  shall,  in  accordance  with  the
  provisions  of  section  four  thousand  four  of  the education law, be
  responsible for paying the tuition costs for children who are  receiving
  care  in a residential treatment facility for children and youth if such
  children are residents of this state and such children were  not  placed
  in  such  a facility by a school district, social services district, the
  division for youth or the family court.