How We Are Funded

Current public funding for Children's Mental Health services covers only about 35 percent of the need. As a result, there will be times when a child and family need a specific service that may not yet exist in their area of the state. Families might also have to wait for certain services, if demand exceeds service capacity.

Priority populations

Florida's public-funded children's mental health system serves eligible children diagnosed with serious emotional disturbance, children diagnosed with emotional disturbance,  children at risk of emotional disturbance, and children  with emotional disturbance or severe emotional  who have a cooccurring substance abuse disorder,  within the amount of funds appropriated for these services.

Cost - Sharing

In accordance with their financial resources, including any private insurance coverage for their children, families are asked to share in the cost of services for their children. Other programs working with the child and family, such as the local school districts, juvenile justice and child welfare, are also asked to participate in sharing the costs of the service plan. Since resources are so limited, it is especially important that Children's Mental Health and other programs work together, through multi-disciplinary planning teams and other mechanisms, to ensure that services are used in the most effective and cost-efficient manner to serve as many children as possible within the available funding.

Funding resources