eNotes
May 20, 2025Updates from the ECTA Center
ECTA Impact Stories
These two most recent stories highlight the impact of the Early Childhood Technical Assistance (ECTA) Center’s efforts in early childhood IDEA systems.
- aRPy Ambassadors Strengthen State Systems through Professional Development and Mentoring: When the Division for Early Childhood (DEC) published its recommended practices in 2014, ECTA was charged with developing resources to promote their use. In 2016, ECTA developed and piloted the aRPy Ambassador Program. The "RP" in aRPy stands for recommended practices, as in the DEC's Recommended Practices, which range from Assessment to Teaming and Collaboration. These Practice Improvement Tools guide practitioners and families in supporting young children who have or are at risk for developmental delays or disabilities across a variety of settings. They include performance checklists, practice guides, illustrations of the practices and guidance materials. Over the last eight years, ECTA has expanded the resources, tools, and products that support the Ambassadors in promoting the RPs. The Ambassador program now includes family Ambassadors and technical assistance (TA) and professional development (PD) Ambassadors. To date, 48 aRPy Ambassadors represent 32 states and two territories. Since its inception, six cohorts of Ambassadors have been recruited.
- Supporting Idaho and Washington to Implement Statewide Systems to Improve Outcomes for Young Children with Disabilities and their Families: This impact story spotlights two states that used technical assistance (TA) to scale implementation of their Statewide Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) practices statewide, making noteworthy progress in their systems to improve child outcomes. OSEP instituted the SSIP in 2014 as a reporting requirement and system strengthening effort to improve results for young children and students with disabilities and their families. ECTA and The Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy) have collaborated to provide technical assistance (TA) to support states with the SSIP requirements.
New aRPy Ambassadors
Nineteen new aRPy Ambassadors have been selected to help build their state's capacity to use ECTA's Practice Improvement Tools to support the implementation of DEC Recommended Practices by local practitioners and families. The ambassadors represent parent training and information (PTI) centers, community parent resource centers (CPRC), Parent Technical Assistance Centers (PTAC), state agencies, institutes of higher education (IHEs), and technical assistance and professional development organizations. The project is a partnership between ECTA, DEC of the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and Parent to Parent of Georgia/the Region B Parent Technical Assistance Center (PTAC).
The ambassadors are:
- Kadie Towns, Alaska
- Tami Phillips, Arizona
- Kamica Barnes, California
- Meg Liebreich, Illinois
- DeJuan Foster and Ashley Walke, Indiana
- Jill Stevenson, Iowa
- Rachael Raske, Minnesota
- Shana LeGrant and Kimberly Terry, North Carolina
- Brittany Prince, Ohio
- Heather Olivier and Sindy Azbun, Oregon
- Annia Knight, South Carolina
- Amy Murphy, Vermont
- Nora Bryant, Ed.D., Lorelei Pisha, Allie Morris, and Melissa Lebling, Virginia
Stages of Implementation: Community Process Guide
The Community Process Guide helps community decision-makers and partners improve services and outcomes for children who have or may be identified with disabilities, and their families. It uses evidence-based practices to support this work. Careful attention and planning must be paid to partner input, infrastructure, quantitative and qualitative data, and community capacity. It uses a stage-based approach to support a multi-layered process of implementing new strategies and practices:
- Stage 1: Exploration and Planning
- Stage 2: Installation
- Stage 3: Initial Implementation
- Stage 4: Full Implementation, Scale-Up, and Sustainability
Announcements
Differentiated Monitoring and Support (DMS) Schedule Change
David J. Cantrell, PhD, Deputy Director of the Office of Special Education (OSEP) recently announced changes to the schedule for Differentiated Monitoring and Support (DMS). OSEP will continue to monitor all programs within a 6-year cycle. States and entities that were originally scheduled to be monitored in Cohort 3 or 4 (2025-2026 and 2026-2027) that have been impacted by these scheduling changes have been notified by OSEP. States scheduled to be monitored in either of these cohorts who have not heard from their state lead will be monitored as originally scheduled.
States with questions should contact their state leads or their associate division directors.
Family Scholarships Are Now Available for the DEC 2025 Conference
The Division for Early Childhood (DEC) is offering a limited number of $500 scholarships to make it easier for families of children aged 0-8 years, who receive early intervention and/or early childhood special education services, to attend its 41st annual international conference in Portland, Oregon, October 7-10. The conference offers families a unique opportunity to:
- Connect with professionals and other families from across the country and world
- Learn about the latest practices, research, and resources in ECSE
- Be part of important conversations that shape services and supports for young children and their families
Families should apply for the scholarship by Monday, June 16, 2025.
Research
NIH, CMS Partner to Advance Understanding of Autism Through Secure Access to Select Medicare and Medicaid Data
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a landmark partnership to enable NIH to build a real-world data platform that enables advanced research across claims data, electronic medical records, and consumer wearables. This partnership will focus first on enabling research around the root causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the long term, the partnership will link real-world data, in a way consistent with applicable privacy laws to protect Americans’ sensitive health information, for research on chronic conditions.