TRANSCRIPT - IFSP Meetings are not ARDs/IEPs for Babies Ð 9/25/23

>>Mari: We're going to be looking at IFSPs because I spent a lot of people who think that IFSP meetings are just an ARD for babies. Especially here in Texas none of us are trained to work with babies. We don't really know any different until somebody teaches us. So we're going to chat today about IFSP meetings and how they are different from ARDs or IEPs. First, let's take a look at IDEA Part C versus idea Part B because this is the crux of everything we're going to talk about today is the difference between these two parts of the individuals with disabilities education act. IDEA specializes in infants, toddlers with disabilities so it's the unique needs of young children and their foundational development in areas like language and communication, motor, physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and concept development. And the whole foundation of IDEA Part C or ECI is it is a family-centered approach and practice. We are not just talking about the children, although they are the focus of what we're doing, but we're also talking about working with the family. IDEA Part B, which is for our local education agencies or our local school districts, is specific to children who are in school. So ages 3 to 22. And it's focused on looking at existing delays and development and how those are impacting their academics. IDEA Part B recognizes the importance of the continued development of academic knowledge and skills and even social/emotional and some of those other pieces and how that's impacting the child's ability to function in the classroom and learn. And then move beyond the classroom. And it is a child-centered approach. So let's start with referral and eligibility. We're just going to kind of move through the stages of what all of this looks like. So once the referral with ECI begins, the IFSP, the Individual Family Services Plan team has 45 days from referral until we meet. And in 45 days we've got to collect all of the documentation we need, medical information, whatever we need related to the potential eligibility for that child. We have to complete a needs assessment and then we have to hold that initial IFSP meeting and write the plan for that child and that family. So the whole kit and caboodle, the goal is to have it all happen in 45 days. Once the referral to special education begins, the ARD or IEP team has a much different timeline. Once consent is signed, there is a mandated five-day waiting period. That can be waived by the parent. Then we've got 45 days for the evaluation. So after the point when that five days is up or the parent has waived it, there's 45 days for them to complete that full and individual evaluation. 30 days for evaluation from the end of the evaluation until we have to hold that initial ARD. For those of you not from Texas, IEP meeting. And then so the total from referral to ARD can be up to 80 days for a child who is already in school. And that includes essentially the same thing. We're having to collect all that information, get medical information, get all the data from outside, and then do all of our assessments and hold that initial meeting. So why is the ECI timeline about half of what the school district timeline is? Because birth to 3 is a critical developmental period. We recognize in IDEA Part C, which is where that 45 days comes from, they recognize the critical nature of this early foundational development for very young children. We know that the development in the first three years of life really sets the foundation for all of these critical areas. And that's where the kids start, when they hit school, whatever they've got, that's their jumping-off point for starting their education. All of this leads to school readiness and it leads to their future potential in school. And we can't afford to waste this time. We have -- by the time we get the referral and we know that a child has a potential visual impairment and we get them through that 45-day process and get them into services, we have fewer than three years to work with that family. And that is not much time to really try and develop a solid foundation in all of these areas. So we can't afford to waste time. We can't afford to spend a lot of time collecting things and having extended timelines. We've got to do it quickly and get started. One of the lovely things about ECI and about the whole Part C process is it's very flexible. So we can go in and make changes at any time. And it's -- I'm going to say fairly simple. It does require getting some people together from some different places but it's a much more flexible and fluid service because we know that we need to be able to do that for these young children. So let's look now at how we determine eligibility. So under ECI in Texas, a child is determined eligible in three ways. They either have a medically-diagnosed condition that's likely to cause developmental delay. And on ECI's website, there is a massive bank of the various conditions that are pretty much automatically going to qualify a child for ECI. Interestingly enough, visual impairment, Deafblind and Deaf/hard of hearing are not in that category because we gave them their own private category here in Texas. So we've got Deaf and Hard of Hearing or blind or visually impaired as defined by the Texas Education Agency. You see my little asterisk there. We're going to come back to that in just a minute. Or they have to show a developmental delay in one of these critical developmental areas of at least 25%. Or if it's expressive language only, it has to be a 33% delay. So eligibility is an infant or toddler with a disability for visual impairment. This is under IDEA. There are two ways to determine a child is eligible. They have a developmental delay in cognition communication, social, emotional, adaptive, or physical development -- which also includes vision. And we have to have assessment to back that up. Or they have a diagnosed physical or mental condition that has a high probability of resulting in the developmental delay, and this includes sensory impairments. According to the federal government, any child with a vision impairment is eligible to be evaluated for and potentially get services because they have a sensory impairment. And we recognize that the potential for that child having a developmental delay is extraordinarily high. Let's go back to school now. How does the LEA determine eligibility? So the determination is made by the ARD committee. Admission, Review, and Dismissal committee or IEP committee. The ARD committee collects and reviews all of the evaluation data. They look at all the medical evaluation and all the information gleaned from assessment. In the Texas Administrative Code there are 13 eligibility definitions. And in order to be eligible, the child has to meet the conditions of at least one of those definitions and they also have to have an educational need. So their disability has to have caused them to be challenged in school and in getting through their education. So under this child with a disability for visual impairment. This comes straight out of IDEA Part B. In order to be considered VI in Texas, the child has to have an impairment in vision, even after correction. And that impairment has to have a negative impact on their educational performance. So if you look at the top in my title next to VI, there's my other asterisk. In Texas, we frequently are told that this definition is how we determine a child has a vision impairment and is therefore eligible for services birth to 22. The problem with this is, this is actually making it more burdensome for us to get our littles in for services. Our birth to 3 population falls under that IDEA Part C definition, which is a much broader eligibility. Because, again, we recognize that this is such a critical point in a child's life that we have to get them in and get services. This IDEA Part B rule is focused on kids who already have that foundation and looking at are they struggling. Is their disability causing them to struggle or to have problems with their educational performance. So we frequently have to go back to IDEA Part C and say this is what tells us that our children under the age of 3 are eligible for services instead of coming back to this particular piece from IDEA Part B, and this is what the Texas Education Agency has as our eligibility. So our key differences in this referral section -- obviously ECI's referral timeline is shorter. The eligibility determination requires identification of a vision impairment but it doesn't require evidence of any sort of negative impact on the child's development. We know the potential is there. We need to be in there and be working with the child and family to ensure that we don't have any of those delays if we can help it. For the LEA, our referral timeline is definitely longer and the eligibility determination -- again, it requires that vision impairment but it also requires that evidence of negative impact on their education. All right. Now, let's take a quick look at assessment. So ECI is required to do a needs assessment. And so this is face to face. We sit down with the family, typically in their home on the floor, and we start talking with the family. We talk about their concerns. We talk about supports and services that the family may need in order to meet the needs of their child. We look at red flags and development in order to determine whether or not we need to make additional referrals. The needs assessment also includes observations and assessments and some are done by ECI providers in any areas of developmental concern. And then for our kids with vision impairments, we have a TSVI and a COMS who come out of our local school district and partner with ECI and they come out and do their observations and assessments related to the VI and the orientation and mobility piece. And then the team is going to develop a comprehensive report with the family during the IFSP meeting. So all of this is happening in a group face to face, having a lot of conversation, asking questions and documenting the family's information as well as the information from the providers. Now let's go back to our school. Our FIE or FIIE in a school with the LEA, parents are frequently asked to complete a written questionnaire about their child's history, be it medical history, birth history, school history. Evaluations, observations, and assessments are completed by the diagnostician or LSSP and the teachers and the other staff but these are usually done individually. So the diagnostician does her piece. The classroom teacher does his piece. The speech therapist or the physical therapist or the occupational therapist each do their piece. And they're assessing for school-related concerns, including academic skills, knowledge, and performance. This is the first point when they will do an intelligence test on the child. And then eligibility under that IDEA Part B definition that we looked at a minute ago. Then our district diagnostician or psychologist writes a comprehensive report based on all of this information. Once that report is written, they send a draft copy to the family. And then that report will be summarized at the initial ARD meeting. So when we're looking at assessment, our key differences are our needs assessment with the family is done face to face. It's done in a conversation. It's done in their home. We're looking at needs and concerns of the family and those are as important as needs of the child. So we're asking parents a lot of questions about their family, in addition to their individual child. As much as possible, we have the whole team together for that needs assessment so that results can be discussed and can be shared and everyone is hearing everyone else's information. And then the report is written with the family during that IFSP meeting. So this is all collaborative with the family and all of the providers. At our school districts, our assessments are typically completed face to face with the child, not with the parent. Assessments are done independent of one another and then that information is correlated into a document. The family isn't present when the report is written but they are provided a copy, which they can read and they can have conversation about. And then, again, that report is summarized in the face-to-face meeting. So, again, we're looking at family focus versus child-focused services. Okay. So let's take a look now at our meetings. Individual Family Services Plan or IFSP. An IFSP, this is a written document that's addressing disabilities and medical conditions, developmental needs, case management needs of the family, and then services that are going to be provided. This information comes from a variety of sources. Parent concerns and priority are a huge source. Evaluations and assessment is another source. And then the comprehensive needs assessment of the family. IFSPs have to be face-to-face. There are some exceptions to this. Of course, post-COVID, even prior to COVID in Texas we do have -- parents have the right to request virtual services. In those cases, they still try to do the IFSP in the home but that doesn't always happen. Sometimes there are reasons not to. Also, in the case of a child who is medically fragile, it may actually not be health-wise it may not be appropriate to have an IFSP in the home. But by and large these are done face-to-face and they're done in the family's natural environment. And the parents and the child have to be in the meeting. So what are some things we might see at an IFSP meeting? Because I think most of us are familiar with ARD or IEP meetings and what those look like. But what are we going to see in an IFSP that's different? So just like our needs assessment, the meetings are informal. Most of the time we pull up the piece of rug on the family's floor and we start having conversations. We ask questions. The parents give us more information. We ask more questions. They may ask us questions. It's this very natural kind of flow and give and take. And while we're talking, we're also all observing. We're observing the parent interacting with the child, the child's response to the parent. We're hearing what the other providers in the room are asking. And so everyone is getting the benefit of being there together. The meeting format is very flexible. You know, if the family needs us to try to cover things in a certain amount of time, then we'll try to condense things. If they need us to maybe meet at grandma's house, we can do that. We're flexible with the times of day that we meet with families. It can be after typical school hours, if that's what's needed. So the whole format is very flexible because one of the things that we are required to do is meet the needs of this family and child. And that may mean meeting on their schedule. Again, as I said, the providers are supporting each other as the family develops goals. And please note that says family develops goals. We're going to talk about that in just a minute. And then strategies for individual goals may involve other providers. So when we're writing goals, there may be strategies and the strategies might not just be for us and the family but for some of the other providers in the room. In ECI, the parents are always considered equals and they are the experts on their child and their family. And so we come to everything we do in an equal partnership. It's not we're the experts because we went to college and got all this special knowledge and we're here to teach you. It's we're experts in our areas. You are experts in your area, your child, family, your culture, your experience. And we come together in equal partnership to provide services. At an IFSP we will discuss the child's eligibility for family-based services. And then, of course, the focus for the meeting is both the child and the family. So during our conversations, there are different things that the team asks about. And I pulled some of these questions off of some old printed forms of IFSPs that I have -- and I do mean old -- because most of this is done via a computer these days. But a lot of this is still -- it still relates. One of the big things we talk to families about are daily routines. What happens in your house? So maybe for bathtime, what does bath time look like? Is it stressful? Does your child enjoy bath time? Does your child scream when they realize you're putting them in the bathtub and taking all their clothes off. We want to know what is good about it and what is challenging about it. Same thing for mealtimes. What does mealtime look like? What does your child like to eat? How do they let you know if they're hungry or thirsty or when they're finished? Because all of these things are helping us gauge what this family may need and what it is that we can provide them support. Play time. How does your child play? How does your child act when you're out in public? So all of these kinds of questions are asked to get as full a picture as we can of the entire family and the child and how that relationship and those interactions play out. And then things like bedtime. How do you prepare your child for bedtime? How does your child fall asleep? How long do they sleep? All of this information gives the team a really robust picture and a lot to start with when we're beginning to talk with this family about goals and then services. The IFSP team and the family will also talk about child and family resources and case management needs. So here's where we're also bringing in the needs of the family. We're talking about medical needs, educational needs, social, employment, housing. ECI is there to try to support all of the needs in the family. And so as much as they need to, they will connect the family with other resources, whether they're local, state, or federal to try and meet any needs they have. If a family is struggling to meet their foundational needs, then they are less able to really focus on the needs of their child. And so the whole point of this is to ensure that the family has what they need so that the child can get what they specifically need. So ECI is a family-centered program. And, like I said, we connect families with whatever organizations or sources are required to help make sure that they can meet the needs of themselves and their children. Okay. So now let's shift and look back at the school again. Now we're going to look at our Admission, Review, and Dismissal meeting or IEP meeting if you are not here in Tejas. It's a written document. It identifies the medical conditions, it identifies the educational needs of the child and services to be provided. This information comes from an evaluation and assessment. It comes from feedback or observations from parents and teachers. These meetings are typically also face-to-face and they are held at the school. There are -- parents can request to attend by phone or even virtually, if needed. But an important piece here is the child is not always in attendance. I think most of us in special education really believe that the child should always be there for at least a portion of the meeting because the meeting's about them. But the child is not always in attendance at these meetings. So what might we see at an ARD meeting? Again, the meetings are held with the school and they're more formal than the ECI meetings. There's a meeting format that typically follows an agenda because there's a lot of required components in an ARD meeting that they have to ensure are covered. And they kind of go in a hierarchical outline and so they have an agenda that they'll typically follow. The family's asked to give input and their questions are welcome. A lot of the information that is provided at an ARD meeting does come from the professionals. In an ARD meeting, teachers and school staff are considered the experts. At this point, we're looking at who has the expertise educationally with the different areas of need that we're seeing in this child. And so we're looking at the school staff or the LEA staff as experts. They're going to determine the child's eligibility for special education and the focus of the meeting is the child. So during the ARD meeting, as I said earlier, the committee will summarize that full initial individual evaluation report for the family. So they don't read that entire report but they summarize the different areas of it. And the family has an opportunity to ask questions or offer feedback. The committee determines if a child is a child with a disability, under the law. They look at the present levels of functional performance academically, what they're seeing going on in the classroom. Then the committee will review and approve the IEP goals. And those goals were written prior to the meeting. The committee establishes services and they also look at instructional arrangements for the child's services. They discuss whether the child may need an extended school year. And parents are encouraged to ask questions, express concerns, and offer any information that may impact these discussions. So, again, our key differences goes back to that family-centered versus child-centered. In ECI the meeting is very informal, it's in the home. It's very conversational. It's focused on daily routines. It's focused on talking about what the family and the child are already familiar with and what they're already doing. And the process is very family-centered. It's looking at any needs and priorities of the parents and any other family members in the home as well as the child. For our LEA, the meeting is again more formal. We hold it at school. We've got an agenda. The ARD committee is very focused on the child's educational need, as they would be. And any supplemental needs the child may also have. The process is child centered and it is focusing on the individual needs of that child. Kate, do we have any questions or should I keep going?

>>Kate: We do have one question that's come in. IFSPs in my area are taking several hours, like two to three plus. Is it required that the TSVI stay for the entirety of the meeting? Like, for the cost-share portion, et cetera? And also for the PR meeting. Those have been taking a long time as well. The participants are literally sitting and watching ECI caseworkers type.

>>Mari: That's painful. So there isn't a requirement for how long one has to stay. Obviously, we want to stay long enough to be part of the critical pieces of that. I will say probably -- and I'm guesstimating here because this is what I've seen happen. Most of the time ECI does their needs assessment meeting and then it rolls right into the IFSP. And so that feels really long because we're doing assessment and evaluation, which technically is a separate meeting. And then we're doing the IFSP -- I think I said ECI a minute ago, IFSP. We're talking about routines, setting the goals, and doing all those other pieces and when you back those meetings up together, they do take a couple of hours. Sometimes more. Obviously the assessment piece is important. It's really critical, if possible, to hear what everybody else is talking about, in particular if you're dealing with a child who has complex access needs. It helps to have the whole team there to talk about the assessment and what everybody is seeing or not seeing. The IFSP itself, the meeting part, is very important. If you get to the end of the meeting part and you've done all of the critical pieces, the goals have been developed with the family. You've got -- you know what your schedule of services is going to look like. And so now they're going to go through and talk about family cost share and add some more information into the computer. You're kind of at another piece of that that's not related to your services. That's an appropriate point to say I'd really like to go ahead and sign off and leave. And check with the parents. Is that okay with you? Do you have any other questions for me? Kind of check in with the family. Make sure that that is okay. Yes, you can leave before they have stopped doing absolutely everything, as long as those big pieces are done. Technically, if you have to leave even earlier than that, you can. As long as you have covered all the stuff you need to cover. But I strongly encourage everybody to stay through those big pieces of the meeting when at all possible.

>>Kate: Mari, one more question did come in. Karyn asks can a birth to 3-year-old child who is VI or Deaf or hard of hearing be served by the LEA if they are not receiving services from ECI?

>>Mari: The answer there is no. ECI is our designated lead agency for birth to 3 services, and so they have to take the lead. That is the group that is tasked with knowing how to do a needs assessment, how to write an IFSP with monitoring the services, the goals, the child's progress. And that is in our state rule. It's in the Texas Administrative Code that ECI has to be at the forefront of all of that. So we cannot provide services if ECI is not in the mix. That said, all you have to have is ECI service coordination. They don't have to have -- parents can pick and choose so they don't have to have any other ECI services. They were offered speech and occupational therapy and nutrition and the family says I don't want any of that. I just want the VI services, then all they have to have is a service coordinator through ECI and then they can have VI, COMS, DHH services. But ECI does have to be part of that whole plan. All right. I'm going roll on. If you guys have more questions, put them in the chat and Kate will feed them to me. I don't have the ability to see the chat right this minute. Okay. All right. So we've looked at our meetings and our documents and what's going on. Now let's talk about IFSP goals and strategies because this is a point where things get a little bit convoluted between what teachers are trained to do and what ECI does. So when we're looking at goals and strategies, the parents are the ones who are going to be asked to give us the foundation for a goal. Now, I'm going to say at an initial IFSP, most of the time you say to the parent what goal would you like to work on? And they give you a blank stare or they say you're the teacher. Why are you asking me? You know, it's the first time that they've gone through this process. A lot of families are still struggling with their own emotions over their child being identified VI or Deafblind. And so they are not necessarily always ready to just leap in and go, here's what I want. But through some questioning techniques, we can get to some idea of what it is they want, asking them where their struggles in the day are, where their concerns are. Times that they would like to be able to better support their child or see their child be more independent. But we want the family to give us the foundation of that goal. Goals are predominantly based on parent concern and their priorities. Those concerns usually come from their ability to interact and connect with their family and have that family relationship. And then also achievement of developmental milestones. Parents have to have ownership of the goals we write because parents are responsible for doing the activities that will help the child meet those goals. So in order for them to be motivated to do this stuff, we need them to have some ownership in the goals that we develop. And so they have to help us write them. They also have to understand them and if we are getting their input and using as much of their words as we can, we know they not only have ownership but they're going to understand what it says and what it means. This is a big departure from IEPs. Goals are short term in ECI. No more than six months. We don't ever write an IFSP goal that spans an entire year. Because if you think about how quickly a young child grows and changes between birth and one year, between one year and two years. Between 2 and 3, it's almost impossible to write a goal that can adequately span that entire year of time. There are going to be so many changes and so many things that may pop up along the way that we need to address more specifically that we need to write our goal short term. So a few months. And so when the child reaches a point of mastery of that goal, then we need to have a brief IFSP meeting and write a new goal. And that can happen at any time. We're not waiting for the six-month review or waiting for the annual. We pick a goal. It's short term. The child achieves it and we call ECI and schedule an IFSP so we can write a new goal and have something we're working on until the next scheduled meeting. The other reason it's critical that parents help us write these goals is because they are going to help us track progress and mastery. And so we have to be really clear with families about how this looks. How to track and monitor a goal. And so one of the big things that I frequently coach teachers on is making sure that we write it measurable so that a parent can understand it. Which means we don't write things like two out of three trials or four out of five trials. Because no parent is going to sit there with a check board and go, yep, did it. Nope, missed that one. It's got to be something that a parent can kind of keep in their head and keep to themselves, yep, pretty sure he did that. Doesn't have to be a yes, I documented it 100%. But if they can kind of think back and go, yep. My gut says, uh-huh, did that. That's good. That's the kind of documentation that we're looking for. We're looking for progress that the parent is seeing. And then we are hoping to also see that progress. So an IFSP goal could look something like this. By Thanksgiving, Damion will use visually guided reach at supper to get his red cup from the left side of his black place two times. His cup will be the only thing on the placemat. Visually guided reach. I asked one of my VI specialists here to help me write this goal. For those of you who don't know me, I'm a Deaf Ed teacher by training. I am learning how to write VI goals. Visual guided reach was the only thing I thought doesn't appear super parent friendly but we need them to understand what that concept is. But the rest of this could have been easily written by a parent. And so this gives a parent something to work from. Underneath this would be strategies. And so within those strategies, we might add in some more pieces of information that aren't in the goal that could be important. But this gives us our basic IFSP goal. And this is something that a parent could say. Yep, he got his cup twice during lunch. Nope, didn't quite do it at dinner. Yep, got it twice during breakfast the next day. They can give you that sense of yes he did it or no he didn't. When we're looking at IEP goals, service providers are writing the draft goals and objectives before the ARD meeting. Goals are based on the results of the child's assessment, observations, and teacher's input. Parents can absolutely request changes to these draft goals, either before or at the ARD meeting. And the committee, the ARD committee, will discuss and potentially approve any changes to be made. Goal timelines, as we all know, are typically written for the school year. And teachers and staff are the ones who are tracking progress and goal mastery for the child. And then they report this back to the parents. So an IEP goal could look something like this. By June 6, 2022, Damion will use visually-guided reach during lunch to obtain his red cup when it is placed on a black mat and positioned to the center left to reduce visual clutter. We will know he has used visually guided reach when he successfully reaches his cup in a singling direct grasp two out of three times in a meal. If you write this for a parent, a parent will never know if their child did that. For starters, there's a whole lot of jargon in here a parent would blow right on by. It's asking for so much information using such technical language that a parent would not be able to use this and track it unless that parent also happened to be a special ed teacher. And even then, they might struggle with some of it unless VI happens to be their area of specialization. So this makes sense in the school setting. We're talking about specialists. We're talking about professionals who have a background and understand all of these moving parts. For babies, we're talking about parents. We want parents to be that critical piece. We want parents to be the doers of the action and also the trackers of the data. So we have our meeting. Parents write the goal, with our support. And now we determine IFSP services. And this is our final step. Services are individualized to the needs of the child and the family. So when we're looking at frequency and intensity of service, it's based on a coaching model. So when we're working with families, our job is to go in and coach the parents so that they learn what to do with their child and they can help the child make progress. Sadly, our job is not to go in and play with babies. Although it's the coolest part when we do get to do that piece. But our job is to go in and coach the parents and then step back and let the parents do the job, do the action. Go through the steps and the skills and the strategies so that they can be working with their child every single day. The small chunks of time that we go and sit in a home are not sufficient for us to be able to make the impact with that child. It's all dependent on the family being able to do that piece. So when we're looking at frequency and intensity of services, we're looking at how much time is going to be required for us to coach the family so that the family can help the child master the goal. There's no minimum or maximum service time for IFSPs. Obviously, you need enough time minimum-wise you need enough time to go in and meet with the family and coach and observe. And then make a plan for the next visit. But beyond that, there is no set minimum or maximum time. Services are scheduled on a 12-month calendar for ECI. And so, yes, this means services are provided in the summer. This is another issue that sometimes comes up since our VI and COMS come out of the school district. In fact, the school district is required to provide a certified TSVI and a COMS to provide services in the summer birth to 3. And the services have to be provided to the child and the parent or caregiver in an environment that's natural for that child and family. And you have to have the adult and the child both there at the service. For the LEA, we're talking about IEP services and instructional arrangements. This the final step in our ARD process. Services are individualized to the child. Frequency and intensity of the services is based on the length of time it will take the child to master the IEP goals with instruction and support from that service provider. As part of the service, the ARD committee is also looking at school-based instructional arrangements. And this is an important piece. Where is the child going to get their services best provided to them? What arrangement is that going to be? Services are scheduled for and provided based on a school calendar. Of course, I mentioned earlier extended school year. So if the child qualifies for ESY that that might be some additional educational time that child will have but typically we're looking at a standard school calendar. And services, by and large, are provided in the school environment. So our key differences -- again, in ECI parents are the primary writers of goals and we are providing support and guidance because we as professionals have a background in writing goals and putting together a smart goal and adding in those other pieces. The parents are the primary goal writers. Goals are based on their concerns and priorities and they have to be able to help us track progress. The services are provided to both the parents -- or the family and the child. As service providers, we are going in to coach. We are using a coaching model. And so our frequency and intensity of service is very much based on the needs of the family and the coaching needs of the family. And our services are provided over 12 months. Again, with our LEA, the professionals are the ones who are writing the goals. Parents do get to give input into those goals and usually should be receiving them in advance of the ARD meeting so that they can read through them and give any input. Goals are based on assessment results. Progress is tracked by the teachers and staff. IEP services are provided to the child. Services are instructional. Frequency and intensity are based on what the child needs to master that goal and services are provided during the school year. Yep. I have a thought. And then I kept talking and my brain ran away with my thought. Oh. Assessment. One of the things I didn't mention when I was talking about assessment earlier with ECI. We do assessment, absolutely. And we update our assessment pretty consistently. And but it is not always used as the foundation for writing all of our goals. Because, again, we're trying to get our goals from the parents. Assessment has a couple of purposes. One is we get a baseline and then as we update assessment, that again gives us additional information about progress and what kind of progress is being made. It can help us make adaptations to some of the coaching that we're doing with the family. It can also help when you've got a parent who really is just can't come up with a goal. They can't come up even with an area to talk about. And there are plenty of families who feel pretty fish out of water when we say tell us what you would like to work on. They just go, I don't have a clue. So you can go back to your assessment and talk about the things that you saw and the things that you had hoped to see. And talk with the parent and see if any of those things trigger a response in them in terms of wanting to work on those areas. And then if we have a parent -- because sometimes we do -- who shoots for the moon with what they want their child to do. We can also go back to assessment and say that is a phenomenal goal and we will get there. But developmentally, here's where we are and here's some of the steps that are going to lead to that goal. And it helps kind of bring them back to we're going to go get there but there is where we have to start because this is how old your child is and developmentally this is where they are. And then, of course, when the child transitions at age 3 at that point the assessment will also become very important because that will go into the FIIE and the child's play-based assessment and all of those pieces. So, that is what I have today. Here's my contact information. If you have any questions or need support or assistance, you are always welcome to contact me. Also, for those of you who are here and from Texas, if you are serving or might be serving infants and toddlers and you don't get e-mails from me from my ListServ, drop me a line, shoot me an e-mail and I will add you to my ListServ. I have a lot of things kind of in play, different trainings and workshops and networking meetings and things that I do for the state. Most of it is done virtually so it's accessible to everyone. So if you would like to be a part of that, please let me know and I will add you to the list.

>>Kate: Thank you, Mari. We've had some chatter, it looks like really Texas-specific folks about some frustrations, not being invited to meetings. Keeping communication. But sometimes, if they don't communicate back, you know, how do we do that. So I made the suggestion of, hey, get in touch with Health and Human Services. If you can't get in touch with your local ECI agency, they provide oversight so that's something they could help do. Yeah, that's some of the chat that's been happening in the chat.

>>Mari: And I will say, you know, we work hard with ECI statewide trying to help make sure everybody stays abreast of all of this information. Because there's huge turnover in ECI. They have huge case loads and they don't get paid super well and they burn out. They burn out faster than teachers do a lot of the time. So that turnover makes it really complicated because you just get people to understand the whole LEA piece and then they're gone. And it is easy for them sometimes to forget that we exist. We're not in their office, they're not seeing us every day and they are running hard and fast, just like we are. And so one of the things that I know can really be helpful is to have some connection with your local ECI. Try to have an annual meeting with them and remind them who you are. Maybe collaborate with your DHH folks and get together as a group and try to just say, hey, here's who we are. Here's the areas we cover. And then poke them when they goof and forget them, then you call and go, sorry, you forgot me. And if they have an IFSP on a VI kid and you're not there, they have to do it again. They have to have another one. You legally have to be at those meetings. So, yeah, if you want to talk about this, you know, in more detail, give me a call or shoot me an e-mail. I'm happy to brainstorm with you about any other ways that you might be able to encourage your ECI to follow the rules and remember that we're there. Because it's not an intentional oversight on their part. It's just we're a unique piece.

>>Kate: Alex, I like your strategy too. Having family helps, helps remind. Sometimes that's just what we can do. Hey, you get a meeting notice, you tell me. If I get a meeting notice, I'll tell you.