Q: What mental health services is a foster youth entitled to in California?

A: More than most caregivers are told, and three of the specific things have names worth learning, because asking for them by name is how they happen.

The three intensive services

They are Intensive Care Coordination (ICC), Intensive Home Based Services (IHBS) and Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC).¹

  • ICC is an intensive form of targeted case management — assessment, care planning and coordination of services, with one person holding the whole picture.²
  • IHBS are "individualized, strength-based interventions designed to correct or ameliorate mental health conditions that interfere with a child or youth's functioning" — delivered where the young person actually is, rather than in an office.²
  • TFC is short-term, intensive, trauma-informed treatment delivered by a trained foster parent in a home setting.²

You do not have to belong to a lawsuit class to get them. These services came out of the Katie A. litigation, and a great deal of published material still describes them as available to a "subclass." The court's jurisdiction in that case ended in December 2014,³ and the state's own guidance now says "membership in the Katie A. class or subclass is not a requirement for receiving medically necessary ICC, IHBS, or TFC," and that county mental health plans must provide them "to all children and youth under the age of 21 eligible for full scope Medi-Cal and who meet medical necessity criteria."⁴

So the eligibility question is Medi-Cal and medical necessity — not a case history. And a mental health diagnosis is not a prerequisite for access to specialty mental health services generally.⁵

The Child and Family Team

A child and family team is "a group of individuals who are convened by the placing agency… to identify the strengths and needs of the child or youth and their family."⁶

The parts worth knowing:

  • The caregiver is a member, expressly, along with the placing agency caseworker, a representative from the foster family agency or programme, and a county mental health representative.⁷
  • Where a young person is in — or being considered for — a short-term residential therapeutic programme or a treatment-providing foster family agency, "the mental health representative is required to be a licensed mental health professional."⁷
  • The youth and family may name people. "The child or youth and their family may request specific persons to be included on the child and family team."⁷
  • Anyone on the team can call a meeting. "A child and family team meeting may be requested by any member of the child and family team," and notice goes to the young person, the parent or guardian, and the caregiver.⁸
  • It goes into the court file. The agency must document the meeting on the child and family team action plan form, "a copy of which shall be attached to the court report."⁹ That is what makes the meeting more than a conversation.
  • The education rights holder must be invited where the team is developing a placement preservation strategy or discussing a placement change.¹⁰

How often: within 60 days of entering foster care and every six months after; and at least every 90 days for a young person in a short-term residential therapeutic programme or receiving IHBS, ICC or TFC.¹¹ A young person can request more.¹¹

Presumptive transfer — care where you live, not where the case is

This one is genuinely obscure and it solves a real problem: a child placed in a different county from the one that opened the case used to have their mental health care run remotely by the original county.

Now, "absent any exceptions… responsibility for providing or arranging for specialty mental health services shall promptly transfer from the county of original jurisdiction to the county in which the foster child resides."¹² It covers any Medi-Cal-eligible child under 21 placed by a county child welfare agency or probation department.¹³ The stated purpose is to let those children "access specialty mental health services in a timely manner" and "to overcome any barriers to care."¹⁴

On timing, be precise. The statute itself says the transfer happens "promptly." The 48 hours people quote is a directive that the state's policy guidance include "a procedure for expedited transfer within 48 hours of placement of the child outside of the county of original jurisdiction."¹⁵ Related deadlines: a mental health plan must give notice "no later than three business days," and where a waiver is granted a contract or agreement follows "within 30 days of the waiver decision."¹⁶

If a young person is placed out of county and their therapy did not move with them, this is the provision to name.

The young person's own rights

The foster youth bill of rights is long and has been amended repeatedly. The ones that matter here:

  • At 12 or older, "to consent to or decline health care services to prevent, test for, or treat sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV, and mental health services, without the consent or knowledge of any adult."¹⁷
  • "Except in an emergency, to be free of the administration of medication or chemical substances, and to be free of all psychotropic medications unless prescribed by a physician, and in the case of children, authorized by a judge, without consequences or retaliation."¹⁸ Who decides about psychiatric medication →
  • To be given contact information for Community Care Licensing, the tribal authority where relevant, and the State Foster Care Ombudsperson at the time of each placement — and to contact them immediately on request, "to speak to representatives of these offices confidentially, and to be free from threats or punishment for making complaints."¹⁹

That last one is the escalation route, and the statute says it must be handed over at every placement.

Coverage does not stop at 18

A young person who was in foster care on their 18th birthday keeps Medi-Cal "until his or her 26th birthday," with enrollment continuing "without any interruption in coverage and without requiring a new application."²⁰

That is a decade of covered therapy that a lot of young people never hear about.

Do this: ask, by name, for ICC, IHBS or TFC — and if you are told the young person is not in the Katie A. subclass, say that subclass membership has not been required for years and ask for the medical necessity determination instead. Ask the county mental health representative to attend the next child and family team meeting; if there isn't one scheduled, request one, because any member of the team can. And if the placement is out of county and services did not follow, name presumptive transfer. Your county's Medi-Cal doors → · What EPSDT covers for under-21s →

Sources

  1. California Department of Social Services, Pathways to Well-Being — cdss.ca.gov.
  2. Department of Health Care Services, Medi-Cal Manual for Intensive Care Coordination (ICC), Intensive Home Based Services (IHBS), and Therapeutic Foster Care (TFC) Services for Medi-Cal Beneficiaries, Third Edition, January 2018 — dhcs.ca.gov.
  3. CDSS, Pathways to Well-Being: "the court's jurisdiction in the case ended in December 2014."
  4. DHCS Behavioral Health Information Notice 21-058, 17 September 2021 — dhcs.ca.gov.
  5. DHCS Behavioral Health Information Notice 26-002, 20 January 2026 — the current specialty mental health access criteria, superseding BHIN 21-073 — dhcs.ca.gov.
  6. Welfare & Institutions Code §16501(a)(4) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.
  7. Welfare & Institutions Code §16501(a)(4)(B)(ii).
  8. Welfare & Institutions Code §16501(a)(5) and (a)(5)(A).
  9. Welfare & Institutions Code §16501(a)(5)(B).
  10. Welfare & Institutions Code §16501(a)(5)(C)(i).
  11. Welfare & Institutions Code §16001.9(a)(39)(A)–(D) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. The probation-side parallel is at §706.6.
  12. Welfare & Institutions Code §14717.1(c) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov. Added by AB 1299 (Stats. 2016, Ch. 603).
  13. Welfare & Institutions Code §14717.1(a)(1).
  14. Welfare & Institutions Code §14717.1(a)(2)–(3).
  15. Welfare & Institutions Code §14717.1(b)(2)(F).
  16. Welfare & Institutions Code §14717.1(f)(2) and (d)(6); see also CDSS All-County Letter 17-77 / DHCS Information Notice 17-032, which set a seven-calendar-day window for a waiver request — cdss.ca.gov.
  17. Welfare & Institutions Code §16001.9(a)(24)(C).
  18. Welfare & Institutions Code §16001.9(a)(23).
  19. Welfare & Institutions Code §16001.9(a)(33).
  20. Welfare & Institutions Code §14005.28(a) and (a)(1) — leginfo.legislature.ca.gov; the federal basis is 42 U.S.C. §1396a(a)(10)(A)(i)(IX).

All statutes and guidance read on 18 August 2026. Note which is which: the child and family team, presumptive transfer and the bill of rights are statute; ICC, IHBS and TFC are Medi-Cal benefits defined in DHCS guidance. This page is not legal advice.

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