(a) The Department of Health and Social Services shall establish an adventure-based education program designed to bring adventure-based education to appropriate juvenile offenders and others selected by referral agencies.

(b) Adventure-based education is a short-term, intensive training program designed to remedy failure patterns and encourage development of self-esteem, self-confidence, and social awareness in

(1) certain delinquent juveniles in the custody of the Department of Health and Social Services;

(2) certain juveniles identified by the schools, division of social services, the courts, youth workers, or other community referral systems, as being able to benefit from adventure-based education.

(a) An adventure-based education program must include provisions for the following phases:

(1) Phase I: Basic Skills Learning

(A) physical conditioning: running, hiking, swimming, and other related activities;

(B) technical training: the use of specialized tools and equipment, camping, cooking, map reading, navigation, life saving, drown proofing, and solo survival;

(C) safety training: first aid skills, emergency care, preventative medicine, nutrition, health, and personal hygiene care;

(D) team training: rescue techniques, evacuation exercises, and fire fighting;

(E) solo: solitary living for a short period with minimal equipment;

(F) interpersonal skills training: coping skills, individual and group problem solving, and societal communication skills;

(G) culturally relevant activities: traditional modes of subsistence living, travelling and surviving in wilderness areas and communities in the state, and cross-cultural experiences;

(2) Phase II: Skills Generalization

(A) vocational counseling and placement;

(B) family and interpersonal counseling;

(C) community systems utilization: transportation, community services systems, and community problem solving.

(b) Criteria for adventure-based education programs shall be established by the Department of Health and Social Services and must include provisions for

(1) staff members with background experience in Outward Bound, NOLS, Alaska Wilderness Experience, Inc., or other similar wilderness skills programs or indigenous cultural experience;

(2) minimum program standards.