eNotes
April 24, 2026Updates from the ECTA Center
Frequently Asked Questions About Early Childhood Transition
Answers to questions from our Transition 101 Topical Series series on basic IDEA requirements related to early childhood transition and accurate reporting in the State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) are posted. These Frequently Asked Questions About Early Childhood Transition focus on IDEA requirements related to transition and the respective roles and responsibilities of Part C and Part B, Section 619 personnel. They came from Session 1: Early Childhood Transition Basics: Roles and Responsibilities. This was the first in a four-session series for personnel new in their roles who support early childhood transition and those who want to refresh and expand their knowledge in this area. Contact sharon.lunn@unc.edu for information on the remaining two sessions:
- Session 3: Accurate Annual Reporting for SPP/APR Indicators C8 and B12 will highlight key resources to aid in state planning, facilitation, and reporting related to the early childhood transition. May 28, 2026, 3:00-4:30 EDT
- Session 4: Final Reflection and Listening Session will focus on related topics such as state definition of potentially eligible for early childhood special education, opt-out policies, and state specific practices. July 30, 2026, 3:00-4:00 EDT
The answers to the FAQs submitted during Session 2, Agency Collaboration: Creating and Implementing an Effective Transition Agreement/MOU will be posted soon.
The Difference Our Work Makes
Two new stories highlight how ECTA helped change one state's culture of service delivery and helped other states prepare for the differentiated monitoring and support (DMS) 2.0 process and their Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) monitoring visits.
- ECTA worked with New Hampshire Early Intervention Program staff to help providers and families understand the important role that caregivers have in supporting their child's development. This sums up their process to plan, implement, and scale up the Sustainable Early Engagement for Change (SEE Change) Initiative to strengthen family empowerment, increase parent choice, and improve child outcomes.
- Stories from Indiana and Montana spotlight key takeaways on how TA supported them during their DMS visits. ECTA and its partners working to strengthen accountability and general supervision systems were the Center for IDEA Fiscal Reporting (CIFR), Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data System (DaSy), and The Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE).
News from the Field
New ADA Rules Deadline Under Title II of the ADA Extended
The Department of Justice has given a one-year extension to the federal accessibility mandate for all digital content produced by state and local government entities. The new compliance deadline is April 26, 2027. As American life has increasingly shifted online, these new ADA rules will improve online accessibility for people with disabilities. All digital content, including documents, presentations, audio, video, newsletters, and websites, produced or in use after this date must be accessible. This means that services and information from police, courts, public hospitals, parks, libraries, transit agencies, school districts, and universities must be accessible online. The preamble to the new rule states, "Just as stairs can exclude people who use wheelchairs from accessing government buildings, inaccessible web content and mobile apps can exclude people with a range of disabilities from accessing government services."
Inside Trump's 3.5% Budget Boost for Special Education
In Inside Trump’s 3.5% budget boost for special education, K-12 Dive provides an analysis of the Trump administration's recently released FFY 2027 proposal calls for $16 billion to support infants, toddlers, students, and young adults with disabilities. That is a 3.5% increase from the FFY 2026 allocation of $15.5 billion. Funding for IDEA's Part C program for children, birth to 3 with disabilities and developmental delays, is proposed at $590 million. If approved by Congress, this would be the first increase for Part C since FFY 2022. This is a 9.3% increase from FFY 2026. Most of that proposed IDEA funding ($15.4 billion) would be for the IDEA Part B grants to states allocation to support students ages 3-21.
Research
Early Intervention Developmental Programming and Childhood Academic Outcomes
In Early Intervention Developmental Programming and Childhood Academic Outcomes, research conducted jointly by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the New York City Health Department looked at whether receiving EI services before age 3 is linked to how well children perform on standardized tests in third grade. Researchers followed more than 13,000 children who received EI services and found that those children scored higher in English language arts and were more likely to meet grade-level standards in both math and English language arts by third grade. These results suggest that EI programs can have real academic benefits, especially for children with moderate to severe developmental delays or disabilities living in large urban areas.