Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs Overview to Trends and Issues in Quality Services Jane Nell Luster, Anne Lucas, and Joicey Hurth

Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs 2

Key National Trends Quality Programs Successful Participation Family Involvement and Family- Centeredness Teaming and Collaboration 3 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

4 Quality Programs

Data Quality Standards Integration of Early Childhood Systems Programs Standards Evaluation of Program Quality Measurement of Child and Family Outcomes for Accountability and Program Improvement 5 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Data Quality Standards Timely Accurate o Reliable  Consistent  Objective o Valid  Complete  Credible 6 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs Secure Useful o Interpretable o Relevant o Transparent o Accessible Data collected, submitted, analyzed, and reported must be:

Data Quality Video 7 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Integration of Early Childhood Initiatives Integration of Part C and Section 619 IDEA services with the broader early childhood community and establishing cross-agency collaboration at the systems level is essential to plan, coordinate and improve the various early childhood services 8 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Program Standards Standards related to children with special needs (e.g., inclusion) should be incorporated into the various program standards established by other early childhood initiatives 9 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Program Quality Evaluation Evaluation or rating systems for early childhood initiatives need to be developed and consistently implemented (e.g., QRIS) in states/jurisdictions to assess and improve program quality across the various early childhood initiatives 10 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Measuring Child and Family Outcomes Integrating child outcome measurement into the IFSP / IEP process is important to help establish meaningful IFSP outcomes / IEP goals and appropriate services Using child and family data for program improvement is critical and relates to OSEP’s results effort States/jurisdictions are still working on quality of data for child outcome 11 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

12 Successful Participation

Functional Assessment Functional IFSPs and IEPs Natural Environments and Inclusive Settings/Least Restrictive Environments 13 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Successful Participation From ECO Stakeholder Process – Ultimate Purpose for Children: To enable young children to be active and successful participants during the early childhood years and in the future in a variety of settings – in their homes with their families, in child care, preschool or school programs, and in the community 14 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Functional Assessment Functional assessment conducted in a variety of settings assists the team in: – Identifying what’s working and what’s challenging in everyday routines and activities (child strengths and needs) to develop functional IFSP and IEP outcomes – Determining the child’s performance across settings in the 3 global outcome areas 15 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Functional IFSPs and IEPs Functional IFSP outcomes and IEP goals form the basis for promoting how children learning best (e.g., learning through participation in everyday activities that are interesting and important to them) Incorporating child interests as the basis for involvement in everyday activities (materials, activities and people) in IFSPs and IEPs, children can be more engaged in playing, interacting and participating 16 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Natural Environments and Inclusion/LRE Since mastery of functional skills occurs through high-frequency, naturally occurring activities in a variety of settings that are consistent with family and community life, provision of early childhood services in natural environments and inclusive settings (e.g., home, community, and/or classroom) best supports learning and promotes successful participation 17 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

18 Promoting Family Involvement/ Family Centeredness

Family – Professional Partnership Family Supports and Services Impact Quality of Life Caregiver Confidence and Competence Involving Families in Evaluation and IFSP/IEP Development and Implementation 19 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Family - Professional Partnerships and Quality of Life Partnerships with professionals influence families’ quality of life (e.g., family interaction, emotional and physical well-being, parenting, disability support) Partnerships are defined as “mutually supportive interactions between families and professionals, focused on meeting the needs of children and families and characterized by a sense of competence, commitment, equality, positive communication, respect, and trust” (Turnbull and Posten, 2010) 20 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Family Supports and Services Impact Quality of Life Services and supports provided to the family also impact on the family’s quality of life Families report being fairly satisfied with supports and services they receive but need a clearer understanding of what is available receive – national focus on developing a framework for services and supports 21 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Building Caregiver Confidence and Competence Strengthening families is a way to ensure children have the best outcomes Building on family strengths and resources helps to support confidence and competence Visits/services provided too frequently can impact caregivers’ confidence and competence 22 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Involving Families in Evaluation and IFSPs/IEPs Involving families in evaluations and the development and implementation of IFSPs and IEPs is critical since parents and caregivers: – Know their child best – Have strengths and influence their child’s learning and development The classroom experience should be a supplement to parenting 23 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

24 Teaming/Collaboration

Integrated Service Delivery Primary Provider Approach to Service Delivery Linking with Broader Early Childhood Services Early Childhood Transition 25 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Integrated Service Delivery Research shows young children make more developmental progress when therapy services are “integrated” into ongoing classroom routines in collaboration with the teacher vs. the child receiving therapy in one- on-one “pull-out” session (builds capacity of teacher) (see Integrating Therapy Into the Classroom at: nto_the_Classroom.pdf nto_the_Classroom.pdf 26 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Primary Provider Approach to Service Delivery The primary-service-provider (PCP) model can be defined as one professional providing ongoing support to the family, backed up by a team of other professionals who provide services to the child and family through joint home visits and consultation with the primary service provider 27 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Linking with Broader Early Childhood Services Partnering with other agencies for service delivery is critical to ensure that young receive necessary services and that services are provided in natural or inclusive settings Early childhood providers working with Head Start teachers, child care providers, etc., help to build capacity of caregivers in interacting with and supporting each individual child’s learning and development 28 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Early Childhood Transition Quality transition is highly dependent on the participating agencies/systems engaging in a shared vision with shared policies, procedures and practices requiring collaboration between Parts C and B. This includes: – Developing interagency agreements that address clear responsibilities, especially for children referred late to Part C – Aligning policies and procedures 29 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

Contact Information Jane Nell Luster, DAC Anne Lucas, NECTAC/WRRC Joicey Hurth, NECTAC 30 Pacific TA Meeting: Quality Practices in Early Intervention and Preschool Programs

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