IV. Priority Recommendations Our recommendations are found across five priority areas: 1. Serving all children who can benefit from Part C EI through outreach, referral, enrollment 2. Ensuring Part C EI services offer quality needed to make a difference 3. Achieving equitable access in Part C EI 4. Addressing mental health needs of infants and toddlers in Part C EI 5. Partnering with Medicaid to improve Part C EI Each of these five areas contains four to six priority actions that build upon strengths of the Part C EI and address areas for improvement. The recommendations for action to improve Pennsylvania’s Part C Early Intervention program build upon the many areas of strengths that put the program in a strong place to continue to develop. These strengths include the breadth of eligibility categories, and, as a result, Pennsylvania is among the top ten states in terms of the percentage of infants and toddlers enrolled in Part C. (See Figure 7.) With 4.8 percent of the population of infants and
practices, and leveraging all available financing. Our state has a long tradition of family engagement and leadership as a foundational element of Part C Early Intervention, including partnerships with families and support for children in their natural environment, whether that is their home or their child care program. Another strength is the implementation of an evidence-based coaching model for delivery of EI services, reflecting national prioritization of this approach. This action builds new skills and supports into a system already using standardized evaluation tools and other best practices in delivery of EI services. While not all states do so, Pennsylvania seeks to maximize available public resources by tapping various federal and state funding streams, including Medicaid, to finance the early intervention services to which children are entitled. 1 Serving all children who can benefit from Part C EI through outreach, referral, enrollment The Pennsylvania Part C EI program aims to meet federal requirements for outreach, referral, and enrollment, including the Child Find, multidisciplinary evaluation (MDE), and eligibility determination processes. The goal is to identify, evaluate, and enroll
toddlers receiving services at any time in Pennsylvania, the state performs well above the national average of 2.8 percent in recent years. Notably, Pennsylvania is the only large state in the top ten highly ranked performers by population enrolled in Part C, with more than 42,000 infants and toddlers receiving services annually.
Figure 7. Percentage of Infants and Toddlers Receiving Part C EI Services, Top Ten States, 2020
Other strengths relate to using partnerships, implementing best
Source: https://www.ideainfanttoddler.org/pdf/2020-Child-Count-Data-Charts.pdf
June 2022
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