§ 15.27 Involuntary admission on medical certification.

(a) The commissioner may receive and retain in a school, as a resident
any person alleged to have a developmental disability and be in need of
involuntary care and treatment upon the certificates of two examining
physicians or of one examining physician and one certified psychologist,
accompanied by an application for the admission of such person. The
examination may be conducted jointly but each examiner shall execute a
separate certificate.

(b) Such application must have been executed within six months prior
to such admission. It may be executed by any one of the following:

1. any person with whom the person alleged to have a developmental
disability resides.

2. the father or mother, husband or wife, brother or sister, or the
child of any such person or the nearest available relative.

3. the committee of such person or his judicially appointed guardian.

4. an officer of any well recognized charitable institution or agency
or home including but not limited to the superintendent of a
correctional facility, as such term is defined in paragraph (a) of
subdivision four of section two of the correction law, in whose
institution the person alleged to have a developmental disability
resides.

5. the director of community services or social services official, as
defined in the social services law, of the city or county in which any
such person may be.

6. the director of the facility in which the resident resides.

7. the director of the division for youth, acting in accordance with
the provisions of section five hundred nine of the executive law.

(c) Such application shall contain a statement of the facts upon which
the allegation of developmental disability and need for care and
treatment are based and shall be executed under penalty of perjury but
shall not require the signature of a notary public thereon.

(d) Before an examining physician or certified psychologist completes
the certificate of examination of a person for involuntary care and
treatment, he shall consider alternative forms of care and treatment
that might be adequate to provide for the person's needs without
requiring involuntary care and treatment. If the examining physician or
certified psychologist knows that the person he is examining for
involuntary care and treatment has been under prior treatment, he shall,
insofar as possible, consult with the physician or psychologist
furnishing such prior treatment prior to completing his certificate.
Nothing in this section shall prohibit or invalidate any involuntary
admission made in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.

(e) The director of the school where such person is brought shall
cause such person to be examined forthwith by a staff physician of such
school other than the original examining physicians or certified
psychologist whose certificate or certificates accompanied the
application and, if such person is found to be in need of involuntary
care and treatment, he may be admitted thereto as a resident as herein
provided.

(f) Following admission to a school, no resident may be sent to
another school by any form of involuntary admission unless the mental
hygiene legal service has been given notice thereof.