Early Childhood Special Education in Context of Pediatrics and Medical Home

Abstract

For many young children, special education eligibility is often concurrent and deeply interconnected with special health, behavioral, and socioeconomic needs. Because of these additional factors, the broader context of early intervention (EI) includes not only early childhood special education (ECSE) specialists but also services from a wide range of healthcare providers social service providers, therapists, and others. Although it is not the responsibility of the ECSE professional to address all these needs, when viewing the special educational requirements of individual children, ECSE educators might more completely serve the children by also recognizing the coexistence of each child’s unique health and socioeconomic issues, whether or not they appear in the child’s IEP. To comprehensively attend to the issues of children with disabilities who have diverse needs, various models and approaches have been devised, one of the more prominent of which is the medical home model.

Appendix A: Resources

Content area	Resource	Description
Resources for ECSE and EI providers
Individualized plan	Regional Resource Center Program (Key principles of early intervention and effective practices: A crosswalk with statements from discipline-specific literature) ectacenter.org/topics/eiservices/natenv_position.asp	A collection of crosswalks in which effective practices in early intervention are supported by statements from discipline-specific literature. Organizations quoted include American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Division of Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children (DEC), National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), and American Physical Therapy Association (APTA). An example of an effective practice in this document is “2. All families, with the necessary supports and resources, can enhance their children’s learning and development”
Screening	Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! An early care and education provider’s guide for developmental and behavioral screening https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/ece_providers_guide_march2014.pdf	This guide walks the ECSE through the rationale and process for developmental screening in children, including choice of screening tools, how to talk to families about screening results, and how to make referrals
Screening	Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! A compendium of screening measures for young children https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/screening_compendium_march2014.pdf	This downloadable document discusses the purpose of developmental screening and helps early childhood providers make informed choices on developmental screening tools
Coordination	Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! An early intervention service and early childhood special education provider’s guide to support developmental and behavioral screening initiatives https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/early_intervention_guide_march2014.pdf	This guide helps ECSE and EI providers in establishing communication and partnerships with healthcare professionals and other specialists
Coordination	http://www.ecels-healthychildcarepa.org/tools/forms	This website, maintained by the Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, contains forms that are useful for coordinating care and creating care plans for CSHCN in early care and education settings
Coordination	The early intervention guidebook for families and professionals: Partnering for success by Bonnie Keilty http://tinyurl.com/q6lwlvt	This link takes you to an excerpt from the book, which expounds upon formation of partnerships between medical home and early intervention providers
Resources for pediatric primary care clinicians
As early childhood special educator, the resources listed in this section are some you could recommend to the healthcare providers of the children you serve
Individualized plan coordination	Managing chronic health needs in child care and schools: A quick reference guide (American Academy of Pediatrics) Spiral-bound—October 1, 2009 or E-book at http://ebooks.aappublications.org/content/managing-chronic-health-needs-in-child-care-and-schools	Resources and strategies for children with special healthcare needs in school and community settings, emphasizing care plans and coordination
Coordination	Medical home care coordination workbook http://www.medicalhomeimprovement.org/pdf/MHPracticeBasedCC-Workbook_7-16-07.pdf	Defines and provides a framework, tips, and strategies for family-centered care coordination. Includes quality improvement examples
Screening assessment individualized plan coordination	Tip sheet—What docs should know about…Part C early intervention program http://nashp.org/sites/default/files/abcd/abcd.ut.early.intervention.pdf	Briefly explains Part C early interventions and the physician role in identifying children who are eligible
Screening coordination	Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive! A primary care provider’s guide for developmental and behavioral screening https://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/ecd/pcp_screening_guide_march2014.pdf	Addresses many questions providers may have about screening, selection of tools, informing parents, and surveillance and builds on Bright Futures content
Coordination	The medical home and Head Start working together http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/tta-system/health/docs/medical-home-hs-working-together.pdf	This document promotes the idea that school readiness begins with health and encourages medical home professionals to be involved with Head Start and Early Head Start, providing suggestions for provider involvement
Screening assessment individualized plan coordination	The pediatrician’s role in development and implementation of an individual education plan (IEP) and/or an Individual family service plan (IFSP) http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/104/1/124.full.pdf + html	This article addresses all the functions in the primary care provider’s role with children who have developmental delays
Screening assessment individualized plan coordination	Role of the pediatrician in family-centered early intervention services http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/107/5/1155.full.pdf + html	The AAP’s Committee on Children With Disabilities explains the rationale and recommendations for the pediatrician role described in this article
Screening assessment coordination	Free online training (Enhancing developmentally oriented primary care (EDOPC)) http://edopc.net/registration.aspx	A website where free instruction on validated screening programs is available, along with related trainings for CME credit. Registration is required
Individualized plan coordination	Care coordination (Medical Home Portal) http://www.medicalhomeportal.org/clinical-practice/building-a-medical-home/care-coordination	AAP webpage describing various aspects of care coordination for CSHCN with practical tips
Coordination	Education & schools (Medical Home Portal) http://www.medicalhomeportal.org/clinical-practice/education-and-schools	AAP web page developed in collaboration with educators that outlines the communication process between medical home and schools
Coordination	The early intervention guidebook for families and professionals: Partnering for success by Bonnie Keilty http://tinyurl.com/q6lwlvt	This link takes you to an excerpt from the book, which expounds upon formation of partnerships between medical home and early intervention providers
Resources for families of children who require special education
Screening coordination	Birth to 5: Watch Me Thrive—Families http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ecd/child-health-development/watch-me-thrive/families	Explains the purpose of screening to parents and includes information on an online “developmental screening passport”—a method of tracking and documenting screenings for both parent information and coordination
Screening assessment individualized plan coordination	The early childhood technical assistance center—For families (ECTA) http://ectacenter.org/families.sp	Site has multiple resources to help families understand their rights under IDEA and what IDEA actually is. Includes Spanish versions
Parent support (not a category in Table 22.3)	P2P—parent to parent USA: http://www.p2pusa.org/p2pusa/sitepages/p2p-home.aspx	Provides peer support for parents of children with special healthcare needs
Finance (not a category in Table 22.3)	Financing strategies for CYSHCN (Catalyst Center) http://www.hdwg.org/catalyst/	Helpful financial information for families of children with special healthcare needs
Assessment individualized plan coordination	The IEP Team (Center for Parent Information and Resources) http://www.parentcenterhub.org/repository/iep-team/	Explains IEP team concepts with a special section for parents
Assessment individualized plan coordination	The IEP Success Kit http://www.examiner.com/review/the-iep-success-kit-special-needs-resource-review	Complete resource kit for parents preparing for IEP and beyond. Includes questions to ask, forms, and sample letters among many other useful tools
Finance (not a category in Table 22.3)	Early periodic screening diagnosis and treatment (EPSDT) http://mchb.hrsa.gov/epsdt/overview.html	Maternal and child health, under the US Department of Health and Human Services, explains how mandated health-care costs for EPSDT are covered under Medicaid
Coordination	The early intervention guidebook for families and professionals: Partnering for success by Bonnie Keilty http://tinyurl.com/q6lwlvt	This link takes you to an excerpt from the book, which expounds upon formation of partnerships between medical home and early intervention providers
Finance (not a category in Table 22.3)	Insurance and waivers information: http://www.hdwg.org/catalyst/	Site explains Medicaid, CHIP, waivers, and other ways of financing costs of care for children with special healthcare needs. Some content is available in Spanish