Section 483-E. Restraint and crisis intervention technique committee

1.
  Committee established. There is hereby established within the council  a
  restraint  and  crisis intervention technique committee comprised of the
  commissioner of children and family services, the commissioner of mental
  health,  the  commissioner  of  mental  retardation  and   developmental
  disabilities,  the  commissioner  of  education  and the commissioner of
  health. The committee shall include  at  least  two  representatives  of
  statewide  and  regional provider organizations that represent providers
  of educational and residential services to children, at least two mental
  health professionals who provide direct  care  on  a  regular  basis  to
  children served by the program types provided in subdivision two of this
  section and at least one representative of parents of children requiring
  special services.
    2.   Establishment  of  coordinated  standards.  The  committee  shall
  identify the most effective, least restrictive and safest techniques for
  the modification of a child's behavior  in  response  to  an  actual  or
  perceived  threat  by such child of harm or bodily injury to such child,
  or to another person, where such child is a resident  of,  or  otherwise
  served  by  a residential treatment facility, a children's day treatment
  program, a family  based  treatment  home,  a  community  residence,  an
  individualized   residential   alternative,  a  family  care  home,  day
  habilitation, day treatment, an intermediary care facility,  residential
  habilitation,  an  agency  operated  boarding  home, an approved private
  residential school or an approved private non-residential  school.  Such
  techniques  shall  include,  but  not be limited to, the use of physical
  restraint, therapeutic crisis intervention, crisis  management  or  such
  other de-escalation techniques designed to help staff assist children to
  manage  crisis  situations.  The committee shall review models of crisis
  prevention and intervention, including the use of  physical  restraints.
  The  committee  shall establish uniform and coordinated standards giving
  preference to the least restrictive alternative  for  the  use  of  such
  techniques in such children service settings.
    3.  Recommendations and report. The committee shall develop additional
  recommendations regarding crisis intervention as  it  deems  appropriate
  including,  but  not limited to, appropriate staffing patterns to safely
  implement such techniques, specific training curriculum  and  regulatory
  amendments governing the oversight of staff training efforts implemented
  by  the  commissioners.  Such  recommendations,  together  with proposed
  regulations relating thereto, shall be included in a report submitted to
  the governor and the legislature no  later  than  September  first,  two
  thousand seven.
    4.  Future  responsibilities.  In  addition  to the duties provided in
  subdivisions one through three of this section, the committee shall have
  the following responsibilities:
    (a) the committee shall report to the governor and legislature, on  or
  before  October thirty-first, two thousand nine, on the progress made to
  implement the recommendations outlined in the  September,  two  thousand
  seven  report;  on  aggregate  agency-specific  data and improvements in
  agency-specific tracking systems in order to provide evidence of  system
  changes;  and shall revise the report to specifically include children's
  day treatment programs and  any  other  setting  serving  children  that
  authorizes   the   use  of  restraints  in  each  of  the  findings  and
  recommendations presented in such report; and
    (b) the committee shall report to the  governor  and  legislature,  no
  later  than  October  thirty-first,  two  thousand  ten,  and  each year
  thereafter, on  the  progress  made  to  implement  the  recommendations
  outlined  in  the  September,  two  thousand  seven  report, and any new
  recommendations made in the two thousand nine  report,  along  with  any

  other  outstanding  issues  and recommendations for implementing uniform
  and coordinated standards that  the  committee  deems  appropriate.  The
  committee  shall  include  in  its  report  the  implementation  of  the
  coordinated  standards  by each agency, including but not limited to the
  revision and coordination  of  regulations,  modifications  to  training
  curricula  and  staffing  models, and may include a recommendation as to
  whether the committee should be continued as its  exists,  expanded,  or
  discontinued.