The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Part C (IDEA, 2004) is a federal program that assists states with delivering early intervention services (EIS) for infants and toddlers with developmental delay up until their third birthday and their families (Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center [ECTA], 2019). Through IDEA Part C, EIS are…

Case managers, often called support coordinators, are pivotal in the service system supporting people with intellectual/developmental disabilities (I/DD) and their families to have meaningful lives in the community, which includes access to community integrated employment. Support coordinators balance this priority, along with ensuring individual…

The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) lists 11 recommended practices for assessment, including "Practitioners report assessment results so they are understandable and useful to families" (DEC, 2014, p. 8). This article examines high-impact practices designed to make meaningful and understandable assessment reports to facilitate…

A critical component for implementing evidence-based early intervention supports and services is the ability to write family-centered, functional, participation-based outcomes. Participation-based outcome statements that are family-focused center on the desires and needs of the parents or other care providers and are based on their interest in…

Early childhood professionals: looking for an effective way to ensure coordinated, family-centered services for young children and families? Discover the why and how of the primary service provider (PSP) approach to teaming, the widely used, evidence-based model that more and more states are adopting to strengthen care and services and improve…

Parents of young children participating in either Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C early intervention or IDEA Part B-619 preschool special education programs were surveyed to obtain a consumer science perspective of the practitioners who were the children's primary service providers. Parents were asked to make judgments of…

In children's mental health, collaborative, team-based individualized service planning is most commonly known as wraparound, and has become one of the primary strategies for improving services and outcomes for children with the highest levels of need. We report on analyses of data gathered at 72 wraparound team meetings from communities around the…

This article reviews literature on the use of interpreters and offers recommendations that will promote effective communication among family members, service providers, and interpreters who speak the family's language, but have not been trained formally as interpreters or special educators. The complexity of the interpretation process is…

This booklet for parents of young children with disabilities describes Colorado's Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) process. It provides information on IFSP guidelines, relates family stories and reflections for families and providers, and describes the values that drive the IFSP process in Colorado. Information is provided on…

A naturalistic study of Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) development included an examination of parent-professional relationships. Relationship quality and control issues emerged as significant factors in parent-staff interactions. A model is presented that can be used to monitor progress in implementing family-centered approaches.…

In this article, the mother of a young child with cerebral palsy discusses how she worked with service providers to help organize efforts to educate church volunteers so that her daughter could participate in her regular child toddler class along with her sister. Classroom adaptations are discussed. (CR)

This article advocates the use of functional behavioral assessments (FBAs) and behavior intervention plans (BIPs) in the development of Individualized Family Service Plans for children with or at risk of developing behavioral disorders. It describes the FBA and BIP processes and proposes a parent collaborative model for assessment and…

This text is on transdisciplinary team assessment of infants and toddlers at developmental risk and emphasizes both the dynamics (interpersonal strategies) and the mechanics (team assessment strategies) of teamwork. Emphasis is on assessment for the development of Individualized Family Service Plans. Chapter 1 reviews major developmental…

Interviews with nine families and staff of an early intervention program for young children with disabilities found that staff members maintained beliefs about themselves as primary decision makers regarding development and implementation of Individualized Family Service Plans and that families perceived the early intervention program as more…

This booklet for Spanish-speaking parents of young children with disabilities describes Colorado's Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) process. It explains guidelines, shares family stories and reflections for families and care providers, and the describes the values that drive the IFSP process in Colorado. Information is provided on…