Integrating Care for Children with Special Needs, a CHCS Purchasing Institute, helped states develop and improve purchasing strategies for children and adolescents with special needs and their families. A product of the Children in Managed Care initiative, and developed in collaboration with the Georgetown University Child Development Center and the Human Service Collaborative, this project demonstrated how public purchasers of managed care services can work together with key partners to develop coordinated systems that meet children’s needs more effectively and can be administered more efficiently.

Five state teams — Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Washington — included Medicaid, children’s mental health, child welfare, and other public purchasers of managed care services for the targeted child populations. Participants identified common challenges, shared innovative approaches, and addressed critical operational issues that relate to the development of more coordinated systems of care for these children and their families.