Abstract
This article describes the recently implemented Child and Adolescent Service System Program (CASSP). This program, administered by the National Institute of Mental Health, is the latest federal effort to address the provision of mental health services to children and adolescents through grants to states to improve service systems at the state and local level. The article traces the history of federal initiatives for children's mental health services, a history marked by a series of failures. Drawing from the lessons of the past failures as well as the successful effort to create CASSP, implications for the survival of CASSP and future federal initiatives are presented.

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