Recent reports have documented how some parents choose to place their children in the child welfare or juvenile justice systems in order to obtain the mental health services that their children need. Senators Susan Collins and Joseph Lieberman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs asked the General Accounting Office (GAO) to testify on: (1) the number and characteristics of children voluntarily placed in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to receive mental health services, (2) the factors that influence such placements, and (3) promising state and local practices that may reduce the need for child welfare and juvenile justice placements. This testimony is based on the April 2003 report on the results of a study addressing these same objectives. For that report, the GAO surveyed state child welfare directors in all states and the District of Columbia and juvenile justice officials in 33 counties in the 17 states with the largest populations of children under age 18. Results of these surveys reveal that some parents, a variety of state and local officials, mental health service providers, caseworkers, and judges misunderstood the role and responsibilities of schools in implementing IDEA. For example, some parents and professionals misunderstood that IDEA gives all eligible children, including children with a mental illness, the right to a free appropriate education and parents did not know that they could appeal a schools decision about providing special education services. (Contains 14 references.) (GCP)