Improving Systems, Practices, and Outcomes

Updated regularly: Coronavirus (COVID-19), Remote Service Delivery and Distance Learning

Webinars

ECTA Center hosts regular webinars with a variety of partners. Additional events are listed on the Shared TA Calendar.

Upcoming Webinars

Targeted Leadership TA Series

  • Fall 2020 - Spring 2021

We are pleased to announce a number of TA Leadership opportunities designed for State Part C and Part B (619) coordinators to increase your individual leadership knowledge and skills.

in collaboration with:
  • The Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy)
  • Early Childhood Personnel Center
  • IDEA Infant and Toddler Coordinators Association
  • National Associateion of State Directors of Special Education

In Pursuit of Equity in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education

This five-session series begins April 21, 2021. DEC and the ECTA Center will host various experts in the field of early childhood special education and early intervention in disrupting the pervasive inequities of our systems. Topics will include troubling notions of "at risk," challenging biases about families in home based services, suspension and expulsion in early childhood settings, counteracting racism and ableism in early childhood systems, and engaging in systems change in pursuit of equity. Sessions will be offered live as well as recorded and available on the DEC website for future viewing. Watch your email for more information on dates, times, speakers, and topics.

Please note: Certificates of attendance and CEUs will not be issued to attendees for these events.

in collaboration with:
  • The Division for Early Childhood (DEC)

Past Webinars

2021

The identification and referral of infants and toddlers who are deaf-blind requires coordination and collaboration at state and national levels. A key responsibility of the National Center on Deaf-Blindness (NCDB) and state deaf-blind projects (SDBPs) is to work with national and state partners and systems to identify and refer children who are deaf-blind as early as possible in order to link families to appropriate services, resources, and support.

ECTA, ITCA and DaSy join with NCDB to provide an overview of the Deaf-Blind TA Network and the unique opportunities that exist for inter-agency collaboration through training and technical assistance. In concert with NCDB, state deaf-blind projects provide technical assistance to help ensure that family members, early intervention providers, special and general education teachers, and related services personnel have access to the specialized training and tools needed to address the early intervention, educational and related services needs of children who are deaf-blind.

See also: Fact Sheet: Identification and Referral of Children with Deaf-Blindness, NCDB page on Indentification and Referral

DaSy and ECTA staff discuss FFY 2018 results from the Indicator C4 Family Outcomes data, including state approaches to surveys, data quality, performance trends, and resources.

See also: Family Outcomes: National Data Analysis

2020

The ECTA and DaSy Center staff have completed their national child outcomes data analysis. They discuss the national performance data for indicators C3 and B7, including national data, state variations in performance, and TA resources.

See also: Child Outcomes: National Data Analysis

This webinar presents key findings from a 50-state survey from the National Center for Children and Poverty (NCCP) and Georgetown University Center for Children and Families (CCF) on supports for social-emotional and mental health needs in Part C Early Intervention.

Topics include: screening, referral, and evaluation; eligibility; services for eligible and ineligible children; and collaboration, including referrals under CAPTA and Medicaid funding.

Presenters from NCCP, CCF and ECTA use the survey to discuss opportunities for strengthening state Part C policies and their implementation. They also highlight examples of promising state policies and practices.

During this webinar, the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) and the Center for IDEA Early Childhood Data Systems (DaSy) provides an overview of the purposes of Part C early intervention services for infants and toddlers and their families and Part B, 619 services for preschool special education. Identifying young children as early as possible requires that partnerships be developed and nurtured with families, communities and programs. Attend this interactive webinar to learn more about Rhode Island's Early Intervention partnership with their Act Early Ambassador to educate and train professionals in home visiting programs including Maternal Infant and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program professionals and early care and education professionals (such as Parents as Teachers) on the use of "Learn The Signs. Act Early." (LTSAE) developmental milestone resources to support earlier identification.

This webinar presented jointly by the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (ECTA) and the National Center for Pyramid Model Innovations (NCPMI) explores how inclusive practices can be implemented by providers delivering services being delivered remotely, in a hybrid manner (with some in-person learning and some remote), or in person but with health and social distancing restrictions. Examples from sites and guiding questions to support innovation are shared.

This webinar addresses key features in current publicly available state Part C guidance to increase in-person activities as incidence of COVID-19 begins to decline in some areas. Two state Part C Coordinators who share details on their state guidance and the process used to develop them.

See also: Considerations for Increasing In-Person Activities and Making Infrastructure Adjustments for Part C During COVID-19

This presentation by Allison Layland of the Comprehensive Center Network (CCN) explains scenario planning. Scenario planning is a way to expand systemic thinking by determining what could happen if uncertainties become realities. By planning ahead for significant disruptions (e.g., COVID-19), an organization is better able to assess itself during rapidly changing conditions.

An eight-step process guides states in developing scenarios:

  1. preparation
  2. selecting focus
  3. identify critical uncertainties
  4. developing a range of plausible scenarios
  5. discussing trade-offs, implications and pathways
  6. creating a strategy and action plan for implementation
  7. monitor, reflect, and revisit with new data (based on the uncertainties)
  8. assess your efforts and impact

See also: CCN COVID-19 Education Resources

As state level collaborators and TA providers embrace the "new normal" and consider the various ways in which classrooms will be opening, this webinar explores the continued importance of inclusion for young children with disabilities. Multiple opportunities that exist for building, sustaining and growing high-quality inclusion are highlighted as well as lessons learned from Spring 2020 about successful family partnerships with service providers while receiving virtual services. For each opportunity discussed, state administrators and partners highlight strategies to support inclusion and enriched social interactions at home and in the community.

This webinar features a new webpage on Collecting and Tracking Maintenance of Effort Data designed to assist State Part C Lead Agencies in establishing a process for collecting and tracking the budget and expenditures of State and local public funds each year to determine if MOE is met.

This webinar reviews Considerations for Increasing In-Person Activities and Making Infrastructure Adjustments for Part C During COVID-19 as states make plans related to workplace operations and service delivery. Indiana and Oklahoma offer presentations from their plans for safely increasing in-person activities for staff, and children and families.

Presenters Kathy Hebbeler and Naomi Younggren discuss strategies and policies for evaluation and assessment during the COVID-19 pandemic and/or other health crises.

For recent resources including guidance documents and tables of tools with potential for use conducting remote screening evaluation and assessment, see Remote Screening, Evaluation, and Assessment.

This recorded webinar for 619 Coordinators features Kathy Hebbeler of SRI International, and the ECTA and DaSy centers. Kathy reviews the purposes of evaluation and assessment, federal requirements for determining eligibility of children under IDEA, including the importance of using multiple methods and sources of information, formal and informal methods and processes, key considerations, and resources.

For recent resources including guidance documents and tables of tools with potential for use conducting remote screening evaluation and assessment, see Remote Screening, Evaluation, and Assessment.

This recorded webinar highlights the work of the PELE center around supporting families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Phil Strain and Johanna Berry Wasser share the videos, guidance documents, and process they are using to support engagement with families during this time when in-person engagement is not an option.

The recorded webinar explores Part C policy and infrastructure issues for states to consider addressing in order to establish and fund early intervention through video-based tele-intervention, including:

The good news is that barriers and challenges are less than some may think and a number of states have experience in delivering effective services through tele-intervention that we can learn from.

Recent emergency measures have forced many early childhood instructors to shift to online instruction. The purpose of this webinar is to provide ideas and supports to help in making those shifts. We'll offer ideas for content resources, share options for ways to use technology (e.g., to hold large and small group discussions), and suggest possibilities for alternatives to assignments (e.g., observation using videos instead of classrooms).

The ECTA Center and DaSy Center invited state Part C and 619 Coordinators and staff to participate in a follow-up TA call to discuss information shared by OSEP on December 16, 2019 on the identification and correction of noncompliance and the reporting of these data in the APR.

The TA call provided an opportunity for states to discuss the clarifications provided by OSEP and share strategies used in applying these requirements to their states' general supervision and APR reporting activities.

2019

This webinar explores foundations for seamless transition for young children with deafness or hearing loss and their families from Part C to Preschool, the role of EHDI and the issues and strategies to support successful transition. State examples from Colorado and Ohio are shared.

The ECTA and DaSy Center staff have completed their national child and family outcomes data analysis. They discuss the national performance data for indicators C3, C4, and B7, including national data, state variations in performance, family survey approaches used, and TA resources. The first half focuses on Indicators C3 and B7 (child outcomes) and the second half on Indicator C4 (family outcomes).

Maine Child Development Services, the lead agency for early intervention in the state of Maine, and The Maine Educational Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (MECDHH) have entered into a partnership to ensure that children who are deaf or hard of hearing, birth to age three, receive family-centered, evidence-based services for deaf and hard of hearing infants and toddlers through the existing early intervention system. Prior to the development of a Memorandum of Understanding, both agencies provided services to this population. However, services and collaboration were often inconsistent across the state, occasionally ran parallel to one another and, in some cases, provided a duplication of services. The MOU served to integrate those services, to clarify the roles and responsibilities of each agency and to ensure that children who are D/HH and their families have access to the expertise of a multidisciplinary early intervention team. As a result, MECDHH teachers of the deaf and speech language pathologists on the Early Childhood and Family Services team, are able to provide support to and share their expertise with their local early intervention teams, families and children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Together, these two agencies are working to provide current, evidence-based services, within children's natural environments, using a primary service provider approach, the embedding of intervention strategies in children's daily activities. They have also added parent to parent support and Deaf/Hard of Hearing engagement into the first six visits of a families' experience with early intervention. On their fifth year of this collaboration, the two directors share what they have learned and what strategies they have employed to lead to successful child and family outcomes.

During this Special Technical Assistance Call, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) with technical assistance providers and a few States present on the ECTA/DaSy System Framework and accompanying self-assessment tool designed to support State early intervention and preschool special education programs with assessing their State systems and planning for improvement. State examples are presented to demonstrate how this resource can be used in a variety of ways including a state systems redesign, SSIP implementation, efforts to enhance State finance systems as well as collecting and using high quality data to improve outcomes for children and families. A new resource, the System Framework Quick Start Guide, is shared as a way for State staff to conduct a brief scan of their State system and identify areas to explore further within the Framework to best meet their state needs.

The purpose of this webinar is to provide information and answer questions about an upcoming intensive TA opportunity that available to states. The purpose of this intensive TA is to help states build their capacity to implement, sustain and scale-up indicators of high quality inclusion that address inclusive policies and practices at the three levels of a state system: state, local program, and early care and education environments. The intensive TA will require states to establish the following (see the Statewide Implementation Guide for details on the approach to be used):

  1. A focused State Leadership Team.
  2. A state professional development network of Program Coaches.
  3. Approximately 3-5 LEA-based preschool inclusion leadership teams to serve as demonstrations sites.
  4. Data decision-making tools to evaluate fidelity of implementation, outcomes and data-based decision-making strategies.
  5. A written plan and budget to scale up and sustain these efforts over time.

TA will be provided from November 2019 - June 2022.

States awarded Preschool Development Grants B-5 (PDG B-5) are actively engaged in assessing the current needs for children and their families identified as vulnerable. States are taking a comprehensive approach to exploring needs and are tasked with bringing together key partners to strengthen the diversity of input and contributions to the process. The identification and inclusion of diverse data sources adds strong value to the assessment process. The IDEA 619 and Part C systems bring rich sources of data useful for states and communities in their continuous assessment and improvement processes.

This presentation highlights the types of data collected by states IDEA 619 and Part C and where the data is located. Discussion focuses on collaboration with state partners to integrate these sources into the broader state picture of how children and families are being supported. Included are suggestions for how the data can be used and analyzed for effective decision making.

This interactive webinar highlights stories from Part C Coordinators who have or are developing collaborative data sharing agreements that allow them to share Part C data with their Early Hearing Detection and Intervention Program (EHDI). This webinar also allows participants to express their challenges and/or issues and as a group and brainstorm ways to overcome those issues.

The ECTA Center hosted a series of four short webinars that explore the Division for Early Childhood's Recommended Practices (RPs)and some of the tools and resources developed to support the use of the practices. The fourth and final webinar unveiled an exciting and new family-level aRPy Ambassador Initiative designed specifically for Parent Centers.

Introduction to DEC and the Recommended Practices
Resources and Materials That Support Family Use of the Recommended Practices
Resources and Supports for Parent Centers
aRPy Family Ambassador Initiative

The ECTA Center invites state Part C and 619 Coordinators and their state staff to participate in a two-part virtual event that focuses on the important skills and habits of systems thinking and how these skills are an important part of the Part C and 619 coordinators' role in leading systems change. Through discussion and activities, the participants examine their own skills and explore resources for supporting systems change work in their own state.

The movement of children and their families from Part C Early Intervention to Section 619 Early Childhood Special Education Services should occur as smoothly as possible. Missouri share policies and processes for addressing summer birthdays. New Mexico describe their state and local infrastructure for coordination and strategies such as local agreements, transition teams and transition coaches.

2018

The Extended Part C Option is contained in the IDEA Part C regulations. The policy was designed to provide states the flexibility to allow toddlers who would be eligible to receive services under Part B, Section 619 to remain in early intervention after the age of three. The District of Columbia and Maryland share their rationale for deciding to use the option and their implementation approaches.

Presenters provide an overview of the national resources available to support COS training and TA, and how they might be incorporated into ongoing professional development (PD). State Part C and 619 leaders share information about their COS PD systems, including how they are addressing critical staff knowledge and skill development needs and impacts of training efforts on COS data quality.

The ECTA and DaSy Center staff have completed their national family outcomes data analysis. They discuss the national performance data, family survey approaches used, and provide a refresher on interpreting state data quality profiles. New TA resources related to family outcomes data collection, reporting, and use are also shared.

The ECTA and DaSy Center staff have wrapped up their national child outcomes analysis. TA staff discuss national estimates, state variations in performance, and provide a quick refresher on how to interpret the state data quality reports. New TA resources related to child outcomes data collection, reporting, and use are also shared.

Permanent hearing loss is an invisible condition and is the most common birth defect. In addition, the incidence of hearing loss doubles during the critical language-learning years before children enter school. Because an infant's or toddler's inability to hear clearly is rarely obvious to family members, health care providers or other professionals it may remain unrecognized for years. Over time, a child with an unidentified hearing loss will begin to manifest language delays and/or behavioral irregularities. In the absence of reliable hearing evaluation, these observable conditions may lead to misdiagnosis, incomplete diagnosis and inappropriate intervention.

Although Part C and Part B/619 Regulations require that evaluation and assessments include hearing, current guidelines do not specify how that should be carried out. Despite this requirement and the availability of technology that allows for infants and toddlers to be reliably screened, it remains unclear how consistently this occurs as a part of Part C and Part B/619 services. Providers may unknowingly label and focus on observable speech-language delays or behavioral problems and initiate intervention without accurately assessing the underlying condition.

For the past 20 years, with funding from the Office of Head Start and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, the Early Childhood Hearing Outreach (ECHO) Initiative has been providing training and technical assistance to Early Head Start, Head Start and other early care and education providers to improve the quality of hearing screenings provided to young children. This webinar includes insights about current hearing screening and evaluation practices in Part C and Part B/619 settings, important questions that need to be explored and introduces you to educational and program development resources that are available to support the provision of quality services at state and local levels.

2017

Child Outcomes Summary Team Collaboration (COS-TC) Quality Practices

This is the fourth of four webinars hosted by the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center in partnership with the National Center on Early Development, Teaching and Learning. These webinars focus on questions that frequently arise when local early childhood programs collaborate to build high quality inclusion.

Pay for Success (PFS) is an innovative and promising financing model that has the potential to expand high-quality services for young children at risk or with disabilities and their families. In this webinar for state staff, DaSy provided a brief overview of PFS and described three ways states can build their capacity to pursue PFS:

  • Participate in a learning community that will work intensively to pursue PFS as a possible strategy in your state.
  • Participate in an interest group that wants to learn more; participate in discussions with TA providers and other states to help you decide if and how you might apply PFS in your state; or
  • Receive periodic informational updates about new developments in PFS.
PFS Learning Community PFS Interest Group PFS Information Updates Group

Learning Lab: Exploring Coaching for Practice Change

Concerned about child outcomes data quality? Learn about a new resource, the Local Child Outcomes Measurement System (L-COMS). A state example of using the L-COMS to help local programs improve data collection is shared.

Engaging Families and Creating Trusting Partnerships to Improve Child and Family Outcomes

This is the third of a series of four webinars hosted by the Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center in partnership with the National Center on Early Development, Teaching and Learning. These webinars focus on questions that frequently arise when local early childhood programs collaborate to build high quality inclusion.

This webinar focuses on supporting participation of children with disabilities in high quality inclusive environments through understanding:

  • Federal policies and laws, including IDEA and Head Start Performance Standards, related to providing services and support for young children with disabilities,
  • Evidence-based practices that promote active engagement, participation, and a sense of belonging, and;
  • Each sector's (ED/HHS) role in ensuring young children with disabilities are fully participating and engaged with typically developing peers.

This session was presented as a part of the ECDTL Series of High Quality Inclusion.

2016

This 2016 national webinar introduces Pay for Success (PFS), an innovative funding model used to address complex social problems. In a typical PFS Financing model, private investors finance the cost of operating a promising or proven social program that has the potential to save the government money in the long term. Over 40 PFS projects are currently being implemented or planned nationwide to address critical needs in the areas of health, justice, labor, and early education.

This national webinar hosted by NCSI, ECTA, and DaSy, for state Part B and Part C staff focused on strategies for assessing the impact of SSIP infrastructure improvements.

Representatives from two state departments of education and two state Part C programs will participate in a "virtual state panel" and share their experiences with implementing infrastructure changes as well as their approaches to assessing the impact of those changes on their SSIP improvement strategies and ultimately, their SIMR.

Session 1: Dual Language Learners with Disabilities: Supporting Young Children in the Classroom

This session offers an overview of young Dual Language Learners. Presenters highlight the importance of maintaining children and families' home language at the same time they are learning a new or second language. Further information on screening and assessing these children, and strategies for supporting them in inclusive preschool programs are discussed.

Session 2: Early Childhood Environments: Designing Effective Classrooms Module and Website Tour

This session provides an overview of the IRIS Center Module Early Childhood Environments: Designing Effective Classrooms. Presenters Amy Harris (IRIS Center), Rob Corso (Vanderbilt University), and Ilene Schwartz (University of Washington) provide details about the interrelated physical, social, and temporal components of effective early childhood environments, as well as information on the ways in which well-designed early childhood environments benefit all young children. Additional emphasis is placed on how to navigate the IRIS Center Website, IRIS Resource Locator tool, and STAR Legacy Modules.

Are you interested in learning more about the validity of the data from the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) Process? This webinar offers an overview of final results from the ENHANCE project. Four studies conducted in eight states provided information about the implementation and validity of COS information for accountability and program improvement. Results are drawn from a provider survey, coding of videos of the COS process, a study examining relationships between the COS and assessment tool scores, and examination of statewide and national population data.

National Inclusion Webinar Series