FC §6924 — Minor Consent for Outpatient Mental Health Treatment
Type: California Family Code
Summary
A minor 12 years of age or older may consent to outpatient mental health treatment / counseling, or to residential shelter services, if in the attending professional’s opinion the minor is mature enough to participate intelligently. Treatment must include the parent or guardian unless the professional determines such involvement would be inappropriate, and the professional must document outreach attempts and outcome in the client record. Parents are not financially liable absent participation. The section does not authorize convulsive therapy, psychosurgery, or psychotropic drugs without parental consent.
When to use
Operative authority on Ella’s capacity (age 12) to consent to her own outpatient mental-health services and on the corresponding limits of parental consent rights for those services. Relevant to: (a) any analysis of who held authority to authorize Ella’s Mending Matters services without Charley’s contemporaneous knowledge (EX16); (b) parental notification questions arising during the CFWB investigation; (c) the joint legal custody framework under ¶¶19–20 — §6924 is the carve-out that limits how far joint legal authority reaches into Ella’s outpatient care decisions.
Section text (verbatim — operative subdivisions)
(a) A minor who is 12 years of age or older may consent to mental health treatment or counseling on an outpatient basis, or to residential shelter services, if both of the following requirements are satisfied: (1) The minor, in the opinion of the attending professional person, is mature enough to participate intelligently in the outpatient services or residential shelter services. (2) [Subdivision in current law concerns serious physical or mental harm threshold; consult full text on leginfo.]
(b) The mental health treatment or counseling of a minor authorized by this section shall include involvement of the minor’s parent or guardian, unless, in the opinion of the professional person who is treating or counseling the minor, the involvement would be inappropriate. The professional person who is treating or counseling the minor shall state in the client record whether and when the person attempted to contact the minor’s parent or guardian, and whether the attempt to contact was successful or unsuccessful, or the reason why, in the professional person’s opinion, it would be inappropriate to contact the minor’s parent or guardian.
(c) The minor’s parents or guardian are not liable for payment for mental health treatment or counseling services provided pursuant to this section unless the parent or guardian participates in the mental health treatment or counseling, and then only for services rendered with the participation of the parent or guardian.
(d) This section does not authorize a minor to receive convulsive therapy or psychosurgery as defined in subdivisions (f) and (g) of Section 5325 of the Welfare and Institutions Code, or psychotropic drugs without the consent of the minor’s parent or guardian.
Linked exhibits
Transclude of Exhibits-by-Statute.base