Promoting Inclusive Opportunities for Young Children with Disabilities: A Cross Agency Initiative OSEP National Early Childhood Conference December 12, 2005 Washington, DC

Inclusion Forums In 2004, CCB, ADD and OSEP held two policy forums to discuss challenges and strategies in the inclusion of young children with disabilities in community-based settings and activities. Participants included parents, service providers, researchers, federal, state and local administrators and technical assistance providers.

Policy Forum Recommendations Creating a comprehensive, cross-systems approach to inclusion Bringing together national-level stakeholders to build and implement a common vision. Additional recommendations in the areas of Awareness/Public Relations, Policy, TA and Dissemination, Professional Development, Data Collection and Analysis, Financing Strategies, Monitoring and Accountability, Research High Quality Inclusion Opportunities for Preschool-Age Children with Disabilities, Proceedings document from the Dec 2004 Policy Forum is available from www. nasdse.org

Cross-Agency Inclusion Initiative In response to recommendations from the inclusion policy forums, the Child Care Bureau, Head Start Bureau, Administration for Developmental Disabilities and OSEP invited cross-agency teams from Arizona, Florida, Iowa, and Montana to participate in a strategic planning initiative called…..

Expanding Opportunities for Young Children with Disabilities and Their Families Through State-Wide Interagency Efforts Meeting was held August 2–3, 2005 in Chapel Hill, NC as a pre-conference day at the Fifth National Early Childhood Inclusion Institute

Expanding Opportunities (Cont.) State teams included representatives from Head Start, Child Care, Administration on Developmental Disabilities programs, and IDEA early childhood programs. Teams came together to develop state action plans targeted at improving inclusive opportunities for young children with disabilities in their state.

Federal Partnerships CCB, Head Start and ADD each provided funds for the state representative from each of their respective agencies to attend the meeting. Each Federal agency committed their technical assistance network to provide follow-up support to the Inclusion Teams as they begin to implement their state plans.

Child Care Bureau Goal of Child Care Bureau: –Help Parents achieve self-sufficiency –Improve the quality of child care programs $4.8 B provided to States, Territories and Tribes 4% quality funds to enhance child care services 83% families use vouchers to access child care Each month an estimated 2.5M children receive child care services with CCDF and TANF- related funds

Head Start Act requires:...no less than 10 percent of the total number of enrollment opportunities in Head Start programs in each state shall be available for children with disabilities and that services shall be provided to meet their special needs. Such policies and procedures shall require Head Start agencies to coordinate programmatic efforts with efforts to implement Part C and Section 619 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Administration on Developmental Disabilities ADD funds three national grant programs: –State Developmental Disabilities Councils –Protection and Advocacy Agencies –University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Each grantee works to impact services for individuals with developmental disabilities through system change activities

Building a state interagency team to support inclusion – one state’s experience OSEP National Early Childhood Meeting December 12, 2005

Our team Expanded the original recommended participants Included representatives of state-funded voluntary prekindergarten program, technical assistance/training system, and DOE funded discretionary project related to inclusion for school-age population

Support to this initiative NECTAC staff members have offered great support and have facilitated communication and planning effort For November meeting, technical assistance personnel from SERRC and National Child Care and Information Center were present

Way of Work Issues originally identified clustered around 3 priority areas –Implementation strategies –Training/Personnel –Families/Informed about Options September meeting focused on brainstorming long-term outcome statements

Our vision and mission Vision –“All of Florida’s children – with and without disabilities - are valued and have opportunities to live, learn, play, and participate together in all life experiences.” Mission –“To expand high quality inclusive opportunities for young children with disabilities and their families through collaborative partnerships, information, supportive policies, and enhancement of technical assistance and training systems.”

Decisions made on-site Selected next two meeting dates Made a determination of additional members thought to be important to include in future meetings Established plan to revise preliminary work on vision and mission statements

Challenges Finding focus and “doable activities” that will engage everyone and have some promise of success Figuring out where we “fit” in the context of other inclusion initiatives and previous work Establishing collaboration among so many agencies

Contact information Cathy Bishop Florida 619 Coordinator 850/

Technical Assistance Follow-Up Once teams returned to their states…Technical Assistance Networks from Child Care Bureau, Head Start Bureau, Office of Special Education Programs and Administration on Developmental Disabilities began to work with state teams on further developing and implementing their plans.

Federal Partner Contacts Jim O’Brien Head Start Bureau Administration for Children, Youth and Families (ACF) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Beth Caron US Department of Education Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services Moniquin Huggins Director, Program Operations Child Care Bureau Administration on Children, Youth and Families Phone: (202) Jennifer Johnson Administration on Developmental Disabilities Administration for Children and Families U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Phone:

State Team Contacts Florida Cathy Bishop Florida Department of Education Iowa Mary Schertz Iowa Department of Education Montana Karen Martin Child Care Plus edu Arizona Karen Woodhouse Arizona Department of Education

Technical Assistance Contacts  National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC)  National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC)  Regional Resource Centers for Special Education htm htm  National Head Start Training and Technical Assistance Resource Center –Head Start Regional Disabilities Services TA Providers