Kansas Coordinating Council on Early Childhood Developmental Services

 

Family Voices (Darla Nelson-Metzger and Jill Bamber, Co-Chairs)

1. Advise and assist SICC and Lead Agencies on parent participation at the state and local level.
   • Develop process to review and make recommendations related to parent participation on SICC and LICCs
   • Provide family perspective on gaining support of parent participation on SICC and LICCs
2. Advise and assist SICC and Lead Agencies on parent perspectives related to transition from Part C to Part B services.
   • Provide family perspective on how we study transition
   • Collaborate with Families Together to document the experiences other families' transition processes
   • Gather family perspectives that document/describe what "worked" during transition and what "needed work."
   • Provide recommendations to develop/revise parent satisfaction tools.
   • Provide recommendations related to interpreting results from parent surveys.
   • Collaborate with Part C & Part B to advise and assist in statewide communications, policies, paperwork, etc. that involve parent involvement. (i.e. IFSP forms, brochures, etc.)
3. Collaborate with ICC Committees and work groups.
   • Collaborate with Public Awareness Committee to improve parent leadership.
   • Collaborate with Transition Committee to ensure family centered/child transition services.
   • Collaborate with the Public Awareness Committee for awareness events with legislators and other policy makers in Topeka and in the local communities.
   • Collaborate with other committees and work groups as needed.

Public Awareness (Nancy Krase and Sharon Hixson, Co-Chairs)

1. Engage in two-way communication with targeted audiences on the necessity of early intervention services.
   • Active communication with policy-makers and local early childhood supporters in district, in Topeka, in person, digitally, and using traditional print methods. CCECDS and its Public Awareness committee will encourage and support this throughout year.
   • Encourage participation in Early Learning Day on February 8th in Topeka.
   • A separate tiny-k Day will NOT be scheduled.
2. Family Leadership Development (with Family voices).
   • To reach out to and involve families in program implementation and policy making decisions in the local communities.
3. Enhancing State ICC to Local ICCs meaningful two-way communications. Focus upon improving family participation in LICCs.

Transitions Task Force – Dr. Dale Walker, Chair

1. To ensure that children and families have a positive and seamless transition experience, the Transition Task Force will advise and assist Part C tiny k and Part B- Section 619 in their work toward maintaining compliance with OSEP guidelines related to transition through the following activities:
   • Part C tiny k and Part B-Section 619 will plan for informing the SICC about the MOA for transition between Part C to B developed in Fall 2011 and presented to early childhood networks.
   • The Transition Task Force along with the Part C and Part B Coordinators and staff, will work together to identify how the Task Force can assist Part C and Part B to support local networks and ICCs in preparing network MOAs and for disseminating information about transition to programs and parents.
   • The Task Force will advise and assist as needed in the development of guidance materials to be used to support local networks with transition from Part C to Part B.
   • In collaboration with the Family Voices Committee and with provider members, the Transition Task Force will review and plan for ways to advise and assist Part C and Part B in gathering satisfaction information from parents and providers about their experiences throughout the transition process and how to use that information in an ongoing manner to inform, monitor and ensure that the transition process is smooth and seamless.
   • The Transitions Task Force will discuss the technical assistance paper, Designing and Implementing Effective Transition Processes and summary of the Early Childhood Transition Self-Assessment Form as a means of providing information about the transition process and content used across networks.
   • The Transitions Task Force will provide support to the State lead agencies to facilitate their efforts supporting local networks and ICCs with the preparation of materials for parents and providers that will help to facilitate smooth and seamless transitions for children, families and providers.
   • The Transitions Task Force will advise and assist with planning for annual transition regional meetings on transition.
2. To inform the SICC about the status of infants and toddlers in Part C and Part B, and how children and their families proceed through the transition process the following data will be requested:
   • How many, or what percent of children in Part C meet their goals and are deemed ineligible for continued Part C services prior to age 3?
   • What are the numbers of referrals made between Part C to Part B?
   • How many, or what percent of children receiving Part C services are found to be ineligible for Part B?
   • Other data relevant to Part C and Part B to support transition and the transfer of data including qualitative and quantitative information about families' perspectives and experiences that will help to inform and monitor the transition process to ensure smooth and seamless transition.
3. In collaboration with other state-level committees and agencies (i.e., the School Readiness Task Force, KDHE , KSDE, etc.) the Transition Task Force will discuss strategies for the collection of longitudinal data of interest to the SICC to address questions about the status of children who have received services through Part C and Part B once they reach school, the strengths and areas of need related to the transition process, and the long-range impact of transition activities and policy on child outcomes including:

Policy Committee (Julie Broski, Chair)

1. Develop work plans by which to organize a meaningful response to the question of whether or not local partners are maximizing utilization of third party payments for services rendered under IDEA. To develop practical responses in the event that locals are under-utilizing third party payers.
2. Advise and assist state and local efforts to ensure that services are available to young Kansans who are identified as being among populations possibly underserved (as identified by the federal government). These would include: foster care, homelessness, Native American, and those needing mental health services.
3. Provide clear documentation of per child Part C spending, in comparison with other budget and economic indicators. To measure the adequacy of State and Local investments in Part C and develop a "state of the networks" report for policy-makers which honestly assesses the strengths, weaknesses, and projected issues for Part C.
4. Improve SICC capacity to evaluate parent participation at LICC level, and to assure a more accurate reflection of parent perspective in our policy advisory capacity.
   • Action steps:
     • KDHE (SICC staff) will report annually to the SICC on the compliance level for parent membership on the LICCs.
     • KDHE (SICC staff) will assemble contact information of parent members on LICCs and the chairs of local LICCs and provide to ICC committees as requested.
     • SICC staff and committees will provide information, or request feedback, not less than quarterly from LICC parent members, and the chairs of the LICCs, in furtherance of the mission of the SICC, and to enhance the experience of parents on LICCs.

December 2011