Promoting%20Inclusive%20Opportunities%20for%20Young%20Children%20with%20Disabilities:%20A%20Cross%20Agency%20Initiative

1
Promoting Inclusive Opportunities for Young
Children with Disabilities A Cross Agency
Initiative

• OSEP National Early Childhood Conference
• December 12, 2005
• Washington, DC

2
Inclusion Forums

• In 2004, CCB, ADD and OSEP held two policy forums
  to discuss challenges and strategies in the
  inclusion of young children with disabilities in
  community-based settings and activities.
• Participants included parents, service providers,
  researchers, federal, state and local
  administrators and technical assistance
  providers.

3
Policy Forum Recommendations

• Creating a comprehensive, cross-systems approach
  to inclusion
• Bringing together national-level stakeholders to
  build and implement a common vision.
• Additional recommendations in the areas of
  Awareness/Public Relations, Policy, TA and
  Dissemination, Professional Development, Data
  Collection and Analysis, Financing Strategies,
  Monitoring and Accountability, Research
• High Quality Inclusion Opportunities for
  Preschool-Age Children with Disabilities,
  Proceedings document from the Dec 2004 Policy
  Forum is available from www. nasdse.org

4
Cross-Agency Inclusion Initiative

• In response to recommendations from the inclusion
  policy forums, the Child Care Bureau, Head Start
  Bureau, Administration for Developmental
  Disabilities and OSEP invited cross-agency teams
  from Arizona, Florida, Iowa, and Montana to
  participate in a strategic planning initiative
  called..

5
Expanding Opportunities for Young Children with
Disabilities and Their Families Through
State-Wide Interagency Efforts

• Meeting was held August 23, 2005 in Chapel Hill,
  NC as a pre-conference day at the Fifth National
  Early Childhood Inclusion Institute

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Expanding Opportunities (Cont.)

• State teams included representatives from Head
  Start, Child Care, Administration on
  Developmental Disabilities programs, and IDEA
  early childhood programs.
• Teams came together to develop state action plans
  targeted at improving inclusive opportunities for
  young children with disabilities in their state.

7
Federal Partnerships

• CCB, Head Start and ADD each provided funds for
  the state representative from each of their
  respective agencies to attend the meeting.
• Each Federal agency committed their technical
  assistance network to provide follow-up support
  to the Inclusion Teams as they begin to implement
  their state plans.

8
Child Care Bureau

• Goal of Child Care Bureau
• Help Parents achieve self-sufficiency
• Improve the quality of child care programs
• 4.8 B provided to States, Territories and Tribes
• 4 quality funds to enhance child care services
• 83 families use vouchers to access child care
• Each month an estimated 2.5M children receive
  child care services with CCDF and TANF-related
  funds

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Head Start Act requires

• ...no less than 10 percent of the total number of
  enrollment opportunities in Head Start programs
  in each state shall be available for children
  with disabilities and that services shall be
  provided to meet their special needs.
• Such policies and procedures shall require Head
  Start agencies to coordinate programmatic efforts
  with efforts to implement Part C and Section 619
  of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

10
Administration on Developmental Disabilities

• ADD funds three national grant programs
• State Developmental Disabilities Councils
• Protection and Advocacy Agencies
• University Centers for Excellence in
  Developmental Disabilities
• Each grantee works to impact services for
  individuals with developmental disabilities
  through system change activities

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Building a state interagency team to support
inclusion one states experience

• OSEP National Early Childhood Meeting
• December 12, 2005

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Our team

• Expanded the original recommended participants
• Included representatives of state-funded
  voluntary prekindergarten program, technical
  assistance/training system, and DOE funded
  discretionary project related to inclusion for
  school-age population

13
Support to this initiative

• NECTAC staff members have offered great support
  and have facilitated communication and planning
  effort
• For November meeting, technical assistance
  personnel from SERRC and National Child Care and
  Information Center were present

14
Way of Work

• Issues originally identified clustered around 3
  priority areas
• Implementation strategies
• Training/Personnel
• Families/Informed about Options
• September meeting focused on brainstorming
  long-term outcome statements

15
Our vision and mission

• Vision
• All of Floridas children with and without
  disabilities - are valued and have opportunities
  to live, learn, play, and participate together in
  all life experiences.
• Mission
• To expand high quality inclusive opportunities
  for young children with disabilities and their
  families through collaborative partnerships,
  information, supportive policies, and enhancement
  of technical assistance and training systems.

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Decisions made on-site

• Selected next two meeting dates
• Made a determination of additional members
  thought to be important to include in future
  meetings
• Established plan to revise preliminary work on
  vision and mission statements

17
Challenges

• Finding focus and doable activities that will
  engage everyone and have some promise of success
• Figuring out where we fit in the context of
  other inclusion initiatives and previous work
• Establishing collaboration among so many agencies

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Contact information

• Cathy Bishop
• Florida 619 Coordinator
• cathy.bishop_at_fldoe.org
• 850/245-0478

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Technical Assistance Follow-Up

• Once teams returned to their statesTechnical
  Assistance Networks from Child Care Bureau, Head
  Start Bureau, Office of Special Education
  Programs and Administration on Developmental
  Disabilities began to work with state teams on
  further developing and implementing their plans.

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Federal Partner Contacts

• Jim OBrien
• Head Start Bureau
• Administration for Children, Youth and Families
  (ACF)U.S. Department of Health and Human
  Services jobrien_at_acf.hhs.gov
• Beth Caron
• US Department of Education
• Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative
  Services
• 202.245.7293 beth.caron_at_ed.gov

• Moniquin Huggins
• Director, Program Operations
• Child Care Bureau
• Administration on Children, Youth and Families
• Phone [phone]
• mhuggins_at_acf.hhs.gov
• Jennifer Johnson
• Administration on Developmental Disabilities
• Administration for Children and Families
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Phone [phone]
• jjohnson1_at_acf.hhs.gov

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State Team Contacts

• FloridaCathy Bishop Florida Department of
  Education
  cathy.bishop_at_fldoe.org
• IowaMary Schertz Iowa Department of Education
  mary.Schertz_at_ed.state.ia.us

• MontanaKaren Martin Child Care Plus
  karen.martin_at_ruralinstitute.umt.edu
• ArizonaKaren WoodhouseArizona Department of
  Educationkwoodho_at_ade.az.gov

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Technical Assistance Contacts

• National Early Childhood Technical Assistance
  Center (NECTAC) www.nectac.org
• National Child Care Information Center (NCCIC)
  http//nccic.org/itcc

• Regional Resource Centers for Special
  Educationhttp//www.dssc.org/frc/rrfc.htm
• National Head Start Training and Technical
  Assistance Resource Center www.hsnrc.org
• Head Start Regional Disabilities Services TA
  Providers