This report is a comprehensive description of Minnesota's children's mental health system. It is designed to provide background and guidance to the Children's Integrated Fund Task Force, to assist local coordinating councils, and to serve policymakers outside of mental health who are increasingly asked to consider problems from an interagency perspective. The Children's Integrated Fund Task Force is charged with: devising a funding structure that will move the mental health system toward a community-based, nonresidential system, and with coordinating services across agencies. The existing system is described, including the actors and decision makers, funding sources, expenditures, funding structures and eligibility restrictions, service delivery and availability, and service coordination. Barriers to an effective efficient system are listed, a rationale for system integration is presented, and innovative funding strategies are outlined. The report draws the following conclusions, among others: (1) solving the problems of the children's mental health system will require integration of its uncoordinated components; (2) residential services will continue to be needed, but establishment of a full continuum of community-based services is crucial for earlier intervention; (3) the existing funding structure is sufficiently flexible to create mandated community-based services; and (4) integration of mental health treatment into schools would provide broad treatment access to children and distribute responsibility among agencies. Appendices contain results of a survey of local coordinating councils and information about the missions and responsibilities of state and local level interagency coordinating committees. (JDD)