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Improving Systems, Practices, and Outcomes

Outcomes

An outcome is a benefit experienced as a result of services provided to children and families. Child and family outcomes are connected. A positive outcome experienced by the family serves to promote the child outcomes and outcomes achieved by the child benefit the family. States collect data on outcomes to measure individual and program progress.

See also: Frequently Asked Questions About Outcomes Measurement

Child Outcomes

The goal of early intervention and early childhood special education is to enable young children with disabilities to be active and successful participants during their early childhood years and in the future.

States collect, analyze, and use data on three child outcomes to measure individual child and family progress toward improved results and to improve their systems and services.

Child Outcomes include:

  1. Positive Social-Emotional Skills (including social relationships)
  2. Acquisition and Use of Knowledge and Skills
  3. Use of Appropriate Behaviors to Meet Needs

States use different approaches to child outcomes measurement. Most states use the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) Process, a team process for summarizing information about a child's functioning across multiples sources.

Family Outcomes

Early intervention and early childhood special education also support families in a variety of individualized ways to help them care for their children and have the resources they need to participate in their own desired family and community activities.

States collect Family Outcomes data and annually report the percent of families participating in Part C who report that early intervention (EI) services have helped their family:

  1. Know their rights.
  2. Effectively communicate their children's needs.
  3. Help their children develop and learn.

States use different approaches to family outcomes measurement. Many states use our Family Outcomes Surveys, the NCSEAM Survey, or develop their own survey.

Data Quality

Child and family outcomes data must be valid in order to make decisions about system and practice improvements. Ensuring data quality is a multistep process, including:

  • Training and support for staff before and during data collection.
  • A good data system and data entry procedures.
  • Ongoing supervision and feedback to implementers.
  • Analysis of the data after data collection.
  • Validity checks.

How do systems, practices, and outcomes work together?

Diagram: SYSTEMS (Building High Quality State Systems, consisting of Governance, Finance, Personnel/Workforce, Data System, Accountability and Quality Improvment, and Quality Standards), leads to PRACTICES (Implementation of Evidence-Based Practices), leads to OUTCOMES (Result: Positive outcomes for children with disabilities and their families)

Local programs implement high-quality, individualized services as required under IDEA to achieve positive outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families.

To support local programs, the state system is responsible for critical functions such as establishing personnel requirements, planning for a fiscally sound system, providing policy and procedural guidance, and delivering technical assistance to support local programs and personnel.

The local programs are responsible for the implementation of high-quality, individualized services as required under IDEA. A high-quality state system paired with the implementation of effective practices at the local level is aimed at achieving positive outcomes for young children with disabilities and their families.