CRSA

What is the CRSA?

The Community and Residential Services Authority (CRSA) is an interagency group created by the State Legislature in 1985. The CRSA is responsible for identifying and addressing barriers facing parents, professionals and providers when trying to get needed services and programs for individuals with a behavior disorder or a severe emotional disturbance and their family.

Mission:

The mission of the Community and Residential Services Authority (CRSA) is to actively advocate, plan and promote the development and coordination of a full array of prevention and intervention services to meet the unique needs of individuals with a behavior disorder or a severe emotional disturbance and their family.

Vision:

The Community and Residential Services Authority (CRSA) is a legislatively created interagency body, consisting of representatives from state human service agencies, gubernatorial appointees, and legislators. The Authority has statutory responsibility for matching need with resources, facilitating interagency cooperation, reviewing and making recommendations regarding eligibility for services, developing a master plan of services for individuals with a behavior disorder or a severe emotional disturbance, and resolving disputes between agencies and between agencies and families.

We support services that are child centered, family focused, community based, and culturally sensitive. We encourage efforts which expand upon or facilitate local collaborative networking and focus on strength based assessment, local service coordination and local service management. We envision every community in Illinois having a representative group to offer and coordinate community based services to all CRSA eligible individuals, to review the necessity for referring individuals for out-of-home or out-of-community treatment or to plan for their transition back to the community if such treatment has been provided.

We envision that local representative groups will mirror the diversity of the community and provide services consistent with the CRSA Service Principles and Service Plan and that intervention occurs before an individual is at risk of extrusion from their home or community. We further envision that communities will have the capacity to develop and oversee comprehensive treatment plans for eligible individuals and their families and will determine priorities for local service development, enabling state agencies to use these priorities to plan and direct resources.

What does the CRSA do?

The CRSA combines interagency responsibility with legislative authority to:

reduce barriers to receiving service(s);
provide technical assistance to parents, service consumers, providers and member agency personnel to appropriately access needed services;
assist local communities, upon request, to develop or strengthen collaborative interagency networking;
plan for a more responsive, efficient and coordinated service delivery system; and
resolve multiple agency disagreements about residential placement or funding of placement and services.

Who are the members on the CRSA?

The Authority is made up of representatives of state agencies that provide programs and services to individuals with a behavior disorder or a severe emotional disturbance and their family, members of the legislature and six persons, including a parent appointed by the Governor.

How does the CRSA define a dispute?

A dispute must involve a child, adolescent or young adult:

who is 21 years of age or under;
who shows evidence of being severely emotionally disturbed or behaviorally disordered; and
where there is a disagreement between a parent and an agency or between two or more agencies regarding implementation of a plan of services.

Who can bring a dispute to the CRSA?

Any issue, complaint or question regarding individuals with a behavior disorder or severe emotional disturbance may be referred by a parent, professional, individual or any agency on behalf of an individual. Though a process of receiving, documenting, and processing the concerns brought forward, a plan of service will be reviewed or developed if one does not exist. If a plan of service is not or cannot be implemented through staff assistance, a dispute may require the involvement of the local community and the Authority to resolve.

How does dispute resolution affect other procedures?

CRSA Dispute Resolution does not replace the use of any other appeal process. A parent/guardian should pursue the appropriate appeal procedures with state or local agencies to challenge decisions made about a plan of service.

How can the CRSA be contacted?

To better serve you, we request that all new referrals be made to our Toll Free number below.

This provides only an overview of the CRSA and the Dispute Resolution Process. For further information regarding the activities of the CRSA contact:

100 North First Street, S-100

Springfield, Illinois 62777

Toll Free: 877-541-2772

or 217-524-1529 (fax)

John Schornagel, Executive Director

Linda Prewitt

Regional Coordinator

North Central Region

Debbi Smith, Regional Coordinator