State Leaders Summit : Making a Commitment to Systems Change in Deaf Education
May 7, 8 & 9, 2007, Columbia , MD
Name of Facilitator: Presenter Rachael Ragin
E-mail Address rragin@dpi.state.nc.us
Name of Recorder Delia Cerpa
E-mail dcerpa@ mail.aum.edu
Topic title brief description:
Birth To Five And Transition
Issues with providing quality birth to 5 services and transition from early intervention to preschool programs
- Early Intervention program used to be 0-5. Currently it is not. After the change transition from C to b became more difficult. Now working towards a more comprehensive approach to service delivery
- We were criticized for over using ASL, which had a negative impact on the system.
- Parents are now bumping into eligibility issues. Parents are coming from high quality program now being put in preschool programs without the support needed and without the family focus approach.
- There is an issue with lack of understanding about what the School for the Deaf is and the eligibility for the school. Additionally there are issues with large versus small districts. In small rural communities, there may not be the specialized providers.
- There also are issues with service coordination with ongoing disconnect between services. There are turf issues and sometimes we find that biased information is given.
- There is lack of full understanding about deaf intervention. Sometimes we (the Deaf Program) are not brought in until 6 months after the development of the IFSP when we should be at the table from the beginning.
- Parents need to learn how to sign with their deaf child.
- Some of the Part C providers do not know about deafness and blindness. They think the Speech Language Pathologist understands the deaf baby or young child when they often have not had the training.
- There are professional conflicts or different points of view.
- We don't hire ASL personnel because of biases. There is a need to hire deaf people.
- If the child has developmental issues or other compounding disability needs, parents are getting isolated recommendations resulting in too many recommendations coming from different sources.
Solutions/Strategies; Commitments of Participants; Improvement Suggestions:
- Families of early identified kids are very aware of the service needs. Co- team early intervention providers Hands and Voices transition packages
- Zero to five program should include:
- Networking with the medical community
- One agency that supports regular assessment
- Having a communication plan
- Family focused services
- Assessment-Service coordination
What does the service look like?
In one state, the point of entry is the deaf school and they make the decisions.
IOWA total communication pre-school is using the oral teacher and the regular education teacher and using a dual approach. Kids get the benefirt of the 2
Children with cochlear implants- opportunities to have teaching moments to focus in the teaching of language.
In another state school, oral kids are separate from TC. The kids that do not need the separate programs go to the mainstream. Very individualized programs for the kids
Needs change after the third grade.
Will the parents have to choose one or the other? The reality is that a blend of both approaches is what the children need. We need to come up with a model that allows no divisions. We are too fragmented.
There is a big opportunity with the advancement of early identification.
In our state people are coming together - getting the families from identification to services.
It is important to cross pollinate the different points of view.
One state had difficulty with a state agenda that didn't represent them. Now the practice is that it reflects the families and the children's needs
There is a need to structure the question in a way to get away from a bias response that divides the different camps. Look at what you are asking when you do a meeting /training/ conference evaluation. Don't call it the continuum but opportunities.
With birth to 5 there is this artificial line with IFSP to IEP. There is a need for a continuum training for the parents. IDEA built in this time states who choose it they can choose homebased interventions that pre-schools should be transition. That is so artificial for families.
In one state the programs are 0-3 and 0-21. We developed early childhood transition guidelines and included parents in the development. We worked toward blending the 2 program. Representatives of the different programs that have different grants were at the table. We have an agreement between agencies and we use the agreements to resolve issues that surface.
Regulatory commitment of the transition will help ensure a family centered approach.
Transition is very important. Parents just just care that you care for them and their child no the letter C or B. Giving parents knowledge and consistent information is critical.