Mont. Code Ann. § 52-2-601

The legislature, in recognition of the wide and varied needs of youth in need of care, delinquent youth, and youth in need of intervention of this state and of the desirability of meeting these needs on a community level to the fullest extent possible, establishes by this part a system of substitute care to provide facilities and services for youth placed out of their homes and establishes a program to provide those facilities and services through local nonprofit corporations, counties, and the department of public health and human services.