2019-2024
Project Overview
This study provides the Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation (OPRE) in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a national picture of the Disability Services Coordinators (DSC) workforce for Early Head Start (EHS) and Head Start (HS), including American Indian/Alaska Native (Region XI) and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start (MSHS) (Region XII) grantees. It also explored practices and policies for working with staff, families, children, and the community. This effort explored how EHS/HS serves children with disabilities and their families and sought to understand how EHS/HS collaborates with services in the community, including health providers, Local Education Agencies (LEAs), and early intervention services.
The study goals included the following:
to describe the characteristics and work of DSCs and related staff in EHS/HS programs;
to identify how children with disabilities and their families are served by EHS/HS including through recruitment and selection; throughout screening and ongoing assessment; evaluation; and the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) and Individualized Education Plan (IEP) process and implementation;
to identify how EHS/HS programs engage in capacity building with families and provide supportive services to families as they understand and advocate for their children with potential or identified disabilities, delays, or other issues such as chronic health impairments;
to identify what EHS/HS programs do when services are not available and when children with suspected delays do not meet IDEA eligibility requirements;
to identify how EHS/HS programs engage with LEAs, IDEA Parts B and C providers, and community programs;
to identify the training teachers receive as well as how they individualize practice and work to fully integrate children with disabilities into the classroom; and
to identify how EHS/HS programs work with children with disabilities and their families on transitions to HS or kindergarten.
Project activities included stakeholder engagement, examination and analysis of existing sources of data, creation and fielding of a national survey, interviews with Disability Coordinators, and dissemination of findings.
The project team was led by NORC at the University of Chicago in partnership with SRI International and consultant Amanda Schwartz.
The points of contact are Wendy DeCourcey, Casey Gunn, and Laura Hoard..
This study is registered on Open Science Framework https://osf.io
This work was conducted to gather findings as related to the 2016 Head Start Program Performance Standards (HSPPS) (subchapter B of 45 CFR chapter XIII) and the 2007 Head Start reauthorization language (42 USC 9801 et seq.) which requires EHS/HS programs to include children with disabilities who are determined to be eligible for special education and related services, or early intervention services, as determined under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (20 U.S.C. 1400 et seq.) at a rate of not less than 10 percent of the total number of children actually enrolled by each agency.
Information collections related to this project have been reviewed and approved by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under OMB #0970-0585. Related materials are available on RegInfo.gov. To access the information collections (e.g. interviews, surveys, protocols), click on Information Collection (IC) List. Click on View Supporting Statement and Other Documents to access other supplementary documents.