Supporting State EHDI-EI Collaboration: Self-Assessment and Meeting Templates
This guide presents ideas to help states as they build partnerships through a process that can be adapted to fit individual state context and needs by guiding discussions about topics important to the system of care for children who are DHH and their families.
The guide can help anyone who wants to strengthen the collaboration between Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) and IDEA Part C and other early intervention (EI) and early childhood systems and services.
The guide contains two sections:
- Self-Assessment Activities to identify where you are along a continuum of partnerships and prioritize areas where collaborative efforts will be most helpful.
- Sample Agendas for Collaborative Meetings on important areas of collaboration.
The guide does not have to be used as written, and the suggested meetings do not have to be followed exactly as outlined. The meetings presented are not intended to be followed in any specific order. Some meetings are designed for new partnerships, and others can be more successful with established relationships.
The number and length of meetings held in your state will vary based on the availability and willingness of partners. Some discussions presented as occurring in one collaborative meeting may take place over several smaller meetings, while discussions from several different suggested collaborative meetings may take place together as part of a longer retreat or conference.
Acknowledgements
This content was collaboratively developed under the National Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) Outcomes Committee. The committee was active from 2009–2024, and included representatives from:
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
- Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
- State EHDI and EI programs
- National and state family-based organizations (FBOs)
- Hands & Voices
- National technical assistance centers, for the expressed purpose of supporting collaboration in states to improve the experiences and outcomes of children who are deaf and hard of hearing (DHH), including:
Self Assessment Activities
Collaboration
Collaboration occurs when two or more representatives from two or more entities begin the process of building a relationship that will achieve success for their respective entities. It is built on developing common understanding, ongoing communication, shared tasks and goals, and joint decision-making.
Partnership
Partnership is a term that describes the process of working together. A continuum of partnership is perhaps more useful to think about than a single definition of partnership. This continuum may range from coexistence, to networking, to cooperation, to collaboration, to true partnership with various points between.
Partnerships can exist at all levels with a variety of stakeholders working together in the best interest of children and their families. What has become clear is that partnership is not a state of being or a static thing. It is not a stand-alone agreement signed at a certain point in time. It is more about an ongoing process or a way of doing things. Partnerships are ever changing as awareness, engagement, and opportunities emerge.
Activity: Team Reflection on Family and Professional Partnerships
Partnership is relationship where professionals, families, and other stakeholders in organizations or entities share power to plan and deliver support together, recognizing that both have vital contributions to make in order to improve quality of life for people and communities.
Adapted from the National Co-production Critical Friends definition of "co-production".
Using the following guiding questions, provide examples or evidence for where the organizations and entities and their leaders and professionals are along the partnership continuum. Some relationships might not fit neatly into one category. You can record your answers on this worksheet.
Guiding Questions
Do leaders and professionals in the organizations and entities know each other?
- Do leaders and professionals in the organizations and entities know about each other or do they know each other directly?
- Do leaders and professionals in the organizations and entities know about each other's systems?
- Do the organizations and entities have a known need to collaborate?
Do leaders and professionals in the organizations and entities engage with one another?
- Do the leaders and professionals in the organizations and entities have discussions? Are these discussions informal or formal?
- Do the organizations and entities share information?
- Do the organizations and entities have shared work on a limited basis on specific activities or projects?
- Do the organizations and entities have shared work on an ongoing basis for multiple activities or projects?
Do leaders and professionals in the organizations and entities have trust and shared values among the members?
- Do the organizations and entities engage in shared decision making?
- Do the organizations and entities each feel they are contributing and receiving value?
- Have the organizations and entities given up something important to maintain their relationship?
- Do the organizations/entities have shared risks, rewards, resources, accountability, vision, and ideas?
Do the organizations have formal structures to unite them?
- Do the organizations and entities have collective visions, missions, or tasks?
- Do the organizations and entities have formal commitments? Are these in writing?
- Do the formal written commitment statements outline shared processes, systems, or structures? Do they include sharing of funding or employment of personnel, or include accountability mechanisms?
Activity: Planning for the Future
After completing the Team Reflection on Family and Professional Partnerships activity, plan how you will strengthen family and professional partnerships. These discussion topics will help gather team reflections and choose concrete strategies to move along the partnership continuum toward true partnership.
Discussion Topics
Where do you believe you are on the partnership continuum?
- What are you doing well, with respect to parent and professional partnerships, that other teams could learn from?
- What barriers or challenges have you encountered?
What specific strategies can be tried to move your team along the continuum?
- What unique aspects of your practice will help your team progress to other levels on the partnership continuum?
- What barriers or challenges could make it difficult for your team to advance to other levels on the partnership continuum?
What steps will you take by next week to support progress in creating and implementing successful partnerships?
Sample Agendas for Collaborative Meetings
You can use these templates to develop your state or entity goals. Each includes considerations, attendees, topics, and questions, which can you can individualize by including or removing.
- Understanding Programs and Systems
- Improving the Referral Process
- Expanding Hearing Screening for Children Up to Age 3 to Increase Identification of Children with Late Onset Hearing Loss
- Professional Development for Healthcare and Intervention Providers
- Improving Coordination of Services
- Sharing Data on Outcomes
- Using Data to Drive Improvement Efforts
Produced in collaboration with:
- The ECTA Center is a program of the FPG Child Development Institute of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, funded through cooperative agreement number H326P220002 from the Office of Special Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education. Opinions expressed herein do not necessarily represent the Department of Education's position or policy. Project Officer: Julia Martin Eile
- DaSy products are developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, #H373Z240001. The contents and resources do not necessarily represent the policy of the U.S. Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officers: Meredith Miceli and Alexis Lessans.
- NCHAM was funded by a cooperative agreement with the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) as part of award U52MC04391 until 2024.
- The Hands & Voices FL3 Center is supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for Family Leadership in Language and Learning as part of a cooperative agreement 6U52MC52991-02-02 totaling $450,000 annually through March 31st, 2029 with 0% financed with nongovernmental sources. This information or content and conclusions are those of the author and should not be construed as the official position or policy of, nor should any endorsements be inferred by HRSA, HHS or the U.S. Government.