Home, School, & Community Council
The Home, School, & Community Councils (HSCC) were organized in 1992 in response to the National Institute of Mental Health initiative called Children and Adolescent System Support Program* (CASSP). This initiative was the actual development of a public community mental health system for children. While mental health services had been available before this time, they were without significant federal, state and county support.
For Information on how to access the Home, School & Community Council, see the Handbook
One of the major tenets of the initiative was the collaboration of public child serving agencies. While most counties opted to have a single CASSP committee which would meet to discuss children with severe problems in living, Chester County created committees in each of the twelve school districts. This decentralization allowed for significantly more attention paid to local cases.
At about the same time (March 1991) a lawsuit (Cordero v. Commonwealth) was filed in federal court which was certified as a class action. On June 23, 1992, the federal district court found the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the Commonwealth had violated the plaintiffs' rights under the federal education law. The court reviewed the record of children not receiving prompt, appropriate placements because of a lack of capacity and then reviewed what it perceived to be the state's passivity and found not only the state's educational department, but all child serving agencies has a responsibility to provide supports to enable children to receive timely and appropriate education in the most valued settings.
As part of the remedial order, the court recommended using the CASSP interagency model as a way of coordinating all child serving agencies in supporting children with problems in living and their families.
Chester County's vision of decentralization has since led to the conception of the local HSCC as a community managed care agent - bring local community people together to manage the care of their children. Potential enhancements such as Communities That Care Board representatives and Cross System Case Management could dramatically enhance that role.
Presently, all of the districts have Councils and a monthly meeting time, although each district uses the Council based on their own unique perception of needs.
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