Every infant, toddler, and family who comes into our early intervention (EI) system has a point of transition. In most cases, the family is preparing for the child’s next adventure beyond EI. The family has to learn about and adjust to the idea of a different support system. They may feel sad to be leaving what is familiar, but also excited (and a little nervous) about what’s to come because it means their child is growing and ready to move forward. They need to learn about where they are going while saying a fond goodbye to their EI family.

That is exactly how I feel right now.

I have a big transition ahead of me. I have accepted a faculty position as an assistant professor of early childhood special education at Old Dominion University so I will be leaving my VEIPD team at the end of July. I am super excited about my next big adventure and am doing my best to prepare for it, knowing that my support system will change and I have much to learn. I definitely feel sadness about leaving what is familiar – I’ve worked with the VEIPD team for 12 years and I love my colleagues. I’ve had amazing opportunities to develop this blog, create resources for EI practitioners doing the most important work of supporting families, facilitate training where I learned alongside participants, and connect with EI practitioners and leaders all over the country. Where I’m headed is built on the foundation of where I’ve been, much like how EI provides a foundation on which families transition. It is with much love and gratitude that I make this transition, even if it hurts my heart just a little (ok, maybe more than a little…).

This Is Not Goodbye…

I have decided to approach my transition without saying goodbye. Instead, this is a big “see you later!” because I may be leaving the VEIPD team (although I consider myself a lifetime member), but I’m not leaving what I love. I love early intervention. I love learning with others. I love sharing new knowledge, building resources, and helping others learn and grow. I am so fortunate to have been a part of this team and so excited to take what I’ve learned and share it with new colleagues and students who will be the future of the EI workforce. Great things are coming!

Again, with lots of love and gratitude, I wish all of you, our subscribers, the very best! Thanks for reading, commenting, and sharing your brilliance here on our blog!

See you later! 🙂

After July 22, 2022, I can be reached at Old Dominion University at dchildre@odu.edu.

Please reach out to Cori Hill (cfhill@vcu.edu) or Lisa Terry (lmterry@vcu.edu) if you have questions about the blog or any other resources from the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center.

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Raise your hand if facilitating transition from early intervention (EI) has been challenging for you or your staff?

Rest assured, you are not alone! We, on the professional development team, consistently hear from service coordinators (especially newbies) and local EI system managers that transition is daunting. They tell us that they or their staff struggle with managing the timelines, filling out the IFSP transition pages, scheduling the meetings, and generally keeping all of the requirements in mind. EI practitioners want to make sure the process works well for families, and as you know, transition is federally monitored so it is very common to feel pressure to “do it right.” To help you help your staff, or help yourself, ensure smooth transitions, we’ve developed a new Transition from Early Intervention Learning Path.

What is a Learning Path?

Learning Paths are small collections of curated activities that focus on an EI topic. To learn about the topic, learners complete each activity on the path. Activities might include reading an article, completing an online module, watching a video, etc. Once the learner completes the learning path, he/she takes a final quiz to earn a certificate documenting the professional development hours earned.

We have several learning paths available now – two on Autism Spectrum Disorder and five on functional assessment. In this post, we’re going to focus on our newest learning path on transition and talk about how to use it with your staff, whether you are meeting in-person or virtually.

A Four-Step Plan for Staff Development

Here are four steps you can use or adapt when helping your staff brush up on their knowledge about transition from EI:

1. Open a discussion about transition during a staff meeting.

Before your staff start the learning path, pull them together for a virtual or in-person meeting about transition or add this to your staff meeting agenda. Use open-ended questions to facilitate a discussion that airs out the challenges and makes room for successes and strategies. Be open to hearing what your staff still need to know. Here are some examples of guiding questions:

• What’s going well this year with transition?
• What do you find challenging about transition? Why?
• What questions do you have about facilitating transition?
• What does a successful, smooth transition look like?
• What tools and strategies are you using now for successful transitions?

2. Guide your staff through the Transition Learning Path.

Introduce your staff to the transition learning path by taking them on a web tour during the meeting, or email them the link to the path with instructions for what to do. To familiarize yourself, take a moment now and visit the Transition Learning Path. Review the six activities, then come back here for more ideas for how to continue the learning process.

Here are some options for how to help your staff move through the path:

• Have staff do one activity before each staff meeting for the next 6-7 meetings
• Convene a special transition discussion group to do each activity together then discuss
• Give staff a deadline to complete the learning path then get together to discuss using specific guiding questions
• Identify staff partners to work through the path together by completing activities and coming together regularly to meet, then pull the whole group together to discuss and share insights.

Or, if you are an individual service coordinator or service provider, you can complete the path on your own. I recommend completing the activities across several sessions rather than trying to knock it all out in one afternoon. The path results in a certificate documenting four professional development hours (after completing a knowledge check) so you will get the most out of it by absorbing the content across time.

3. Continue the learning with a Transition Learning Byte.

Learning across time is always more effective than learning from a single event or resource. The nature of the learning paths encourages learning across time, but you can extend the conversation even further by using the Shooting the Transition Hoop Learning Byte. Learning Bytes are staff meeting activities on a variety of EI topics. The purpose of the transition learning byte is to guide learners as they review key things to remember about transition and reflect on how they can use this information in their daily work with children and families. This could be an activity you do after a group discussion about what was learned from the learning path as a way to debrief. Or, use this learning byte two weeks or a month later to refresh and revisit transition.

4. Revisit the Transition from Early Intervention Services to Part B Preschool Special Education Performance Checklist in 3 months.

Another idea to stretch the conversation and continue the learning would be to use the Transition Performance Checklist multiple times. It is included as an activity on the learning path, but you could have your staff complete it again three months down the road as a self-assessment, either during a group meeting, at supervision, or during peer observations.

Transition is an ongoing process that is so important to ensuring families leave EI with confidence. Whether your staff includes service coordinators, service providers, or both, all EI practitioners can benefit from an understanding of the process. If you want more information or resources about transition, be sure to visit the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center site’s Transition topic page.

How could YOU use the new Transition Learning Path?

Share your ideas in the comments below!

Resource Highlight: Transition Tutorials

This 4-part series of video tutorials is part of the learning path but can be very useful to staff on their own. These tutorials explain how to complete the transition section of VA’s IFSP and additional requirements in the process:

• Transition:  A Series of Family Decisions 
• Transition: Developing the Plan and Documenting the Steps 
• Transition in Action: Scenarios
• Transition Conference Requirements 

Look for the tutorials on the VEIPD Transition topic page, under the eLearning tab!

The post Resource Alert! – Check Out the New Transition Learning Path appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

Transition is a hefty topic here in Virginia, and I bet it’s probably a hefty topic in other states as well. Transition, and all of the requirements that go along with it, can be overwhelming to all members of the IFSP team. In VA, we often hear from service coordinators that transition is hard – hard to remember all of the steps involved, hard to complete the documentation accurately, hard to manage timelines, and hard to collaborate with receiving programs. For service providers (and service coordinators too), it can be hard to let families go. For families, transition can be a scary time of moving from the known to the unknown and learning to trust someone new with their child. Despite the challenges, we hope that in the end, transition is smooth and results in children and families moving to the next environment where they will be supported and successful.

That all sounds great, but how do you do it? What does smooth and successful transition look like?

A Flexible and Focused Journey

Answering those questions is tricky because transition should be an individualized process. It should be flexible but focused, with the journey being as important as the destination. We often think of transition as the journey from Part C early intervention (EI) to Part B early childhood special education preschool services. The DEC Recommended Practices on transition remind us to think more broadly. Transition in EI includes any change in environment, such as a preemie’s move from the NICU to home or a two year old’s move from home-based EI services to classroom-based preschool under Part B, Early Head Start, a local church preschool, or child care center.

DEC Recommended Practices: Transition

Transition often represents a big change for the family, so what we, as EI practitioners, do before, during, and after that change really matters. Let’s consider the two recommended practices and how what you do impacts what successful transition looks like.

TR1. Practitioners in sending and receiving programs exchange information before, during, and after transition about practices most likely to support the child’s successful adjustment and positive outcomes.

As we see in this practice, it matters what we do before, during, and after the journey:

Before transition: Exchanging information when preparing for transition might look like a service coordinator sharing the IFSP and evaluation information with the receiving program (with parent permission) at the point of referral. It might look like the parent sharing a homemade booklet about her child with the IEP team so they can learn who her child really is. 

During transition: Imagine the speech therapist from the EI program talking with the receiving preschool teacher about how best to support the child’s communication starting the first day of school. Or, the EI physical therapist (PT) working closely with the receiving program’s PT to ensure the new program has the appropriate equipment so the child has the stability he needs to participate in group activities. 

After transition: Even though the child will be discharged from the EI program just before transition, wouldn’t it be great if the receiving program staff could still reach out to the EI practitioners with questions about how to help the child adjust to the new environment? Similarly, the EI staff could reach out to the family to check in on the child’s adjustment and offer support, even just over the phone. Staying in touch, even though the child is no longer receiving EI services, would be a wonderful way to facilitate that seamless transition. 

TR2. Practitioners use a variety of planned and timely strategies with the child and family before, during, and after the transition to support successful adjustment and positive outcomes for both the child and family.

Implementing this practice reminds us that transition should be well-planned and coordinated. For a service coordinator, this might look like closely monitoring required timelines for Part B referral, which in Virginia includes referring children by April 1st (or earlier in some localities) to ensure that eligible children start preschool the first day of the next school year. Service coordinators also ensure that transition planning occurs at least 90 days but not more than 9 months prior to the anticipated date of transition. Transition conferences are held so families can learn about their options and plan accordingly.

During the transition process, the service coordinator and other providers can help families prepare and provide needed information to the receiving programs (such as proof of residency). They may attend eligibility or IEP meetings with families for support. Service coordinators and providers can check in regularly with families about the process, answer questions, and link families with other parents who have been through the process. 

Providers can help children and families prepare for the new environment by working together on outcomes to help the child be successful. Examples of this could include teaching the child to use an AAC device to communicate more clearly with others, helping the child learn to use a gait trainer to maneuver around obstacles in a busy setting, assisting the parent in finding opportunities for the child to learn to play near other children, or encouraging the family to teach the child to hang up a jacket, carry his backpack, or help clean up after lunch. 

What transition looks like and how the journey unfolds will be different for each child and family. What we do, as EI practitioners, before, during, and after transition can help make sure the process is a positive one that prepares children (and their parents) to be successful wherever they go next.

What is one of the most important things you can do to help families prepare for transition?

How do you support families during and after transition? 

Share how you implement the transition practices in the comments below!

To read more about how to implement other DEC Recommended Practices, be sure to check out the rest of this series by searching for “DEC Recommended Practices” using the search feature at the top of the page.

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Service coordinators, the early intervention (EI) team members who lead the transition process, often have questions about how to ensure that all of the required transition steps are followed and documented. Individualizing the process while accurately documenting the required steps is an important balance for service coordinators. There are a lot of details to attend to, but service coordinators should keep in mind that these requirements are there to ensure timely, supportive transition experiences for families. Documenting transition and managing requirements are also important for local and state compliance with federal regulations because, as service coordinators know, transition is closely monitored.

Like all parts of the IFSP, the transition pages in Section VII must be individualized and completely filled out to accurately document the process for each child and family. It is the service coordinator’s responsibility to keep the transition pages updated throughout the process. To help service coordinators ensure that they are accurately documenting transition, three brief tutorials are now available on the Transition page on the Virginia Early Intervention Professional Development Center site. Service coordinators are encouraged to watch these tutorials in the following order:

Transition: A Series of Family Decisions (run time 6:05)

During this first tutorial, transition is introduced as a process for all families of children enrolled in EI. The first two boxes in Section VII: Transition Planning (of Virginia’s IFSP) are explained. Guidance is provided about the information that is documented in these boxes and how this information helps the EI team determine timelines and plan for the child’s transition.

Transition: Developing the Plan and Documenting the Steps (run time 13:16)

This second tutorial begins by stating that the federal law, Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (2004), requires that transition planning occur on the IFSP for all children receiving Part C EI services. This planning must begin at least 90 days and up to 9 months before the child will transition out of the program. Requirements for the IFSP meeting and documentation related to transition planning are discussed, including how to complete the Parental Prior Notice form (PDF, New Window). The six “Transition Steps/Activities” in Section VII are also reviewed in depth so that service coordinators understand how to document transition planning on the IFSP.

Transition in Action: Scenarios (run time 10:08)

The final tutorial is designed to help service coordinators put into practice what was discussed in the other tutorials. Three scenarios are discussed and documented on each child’s transition plan in the IFSP. The scenarios demonstrate how to document transition for: 1) a child who’s family is interested in transition options including early childhood special education (ECSE) and another community preschool; 2) a child who’s family is not interested in ECSE and wants the child to continue in her current day care setting; and 3) a child who is no longer showing any developmental delays by age three and needs no further services.

If you have questions about how to complete the transition planning section of the IFSP, be sure to watch these three tutorials. You can also review Chapter 7 in the Infant & Toddler Connection of VA Practice Manual for instructions on completing the IFSP and Chapter 8 for guidance about transition. If you continue to have questions, remember that your Supervisor, Local System Manager, and your Technical Assistance and Monitoring Consultants at the state office are available to assist.

What feedback do you have about these new transition resources? 

How could you use/share them with your staff and colleagues?

The post Got Questions about Transition and the IFSP? – There’s a Tutorial for That! appeared first on Early Intervention Strategies for Success.

In September and October, we hosted a Talks on Tuesdays webinar series entitled, Getting from Here to There: Navigating the Transition from Part C to Part B. This series of two webinars focused on guidance for transition from early intervention (Part C) to early childhood special education (Part B). Presenters shared information about transition procedures, practical experiences and strategies used by professionals who help families with transition. Because the discussion during the webinar and in chat was so rich, I thought I’d share some of the great ideas from it here on the blog. I can’t take any credit for the info you’ll read below…these tips and strategies came from people like YOU – service coordinators, service providers, and administrators in both Part C and Part B systems. If you have additional strategies or ideas, please share them in the comments below!

What information does your system share with families?

Different types of information were shared, including transition handouts, information sheets, folders, brochures, and packets. These resources included info about the transition process, eligibility requirements, timelines, differences between EI and school services, and other transition options outside of the schools (e.g., private therapy, other preschools, child care). Several systems hold workshops in the winter months or transition info sessions twice each year which are open to all families. One system hosts a meeting like this at the local preschool. Another invites local school personnel to talk about their services and has a parent discuss his/her experience with transition.

What strategies do you use to notify the Part B system of potential referrals?

In addition to building personal relationships with local Part B contacts, a prevailing theme among webinar participants was being mindful about how many referrals they send at one time. Since many referrals are sent to Part B between January and March of each year, many participants said that they tried to spread the number of referrals out “to assist the school system in managing timelines.”

How do you communicate between Part C and Part B to make sure the process goes smoothly?

Many participants described frequent contact by phone, fax, or encrypted email. Other strategies included: inviting the Part B representative to join visits with families, meeting monthly with the school rep to review child-specific transition information, attending local school meetings, and inviting school reps to attend Local Interagency Coordinating Council meetings.

What is one tip or strategy you use to support successful transitions?

Lots of great ideas bubbled up from the chat during the webinars:

• Build good relationships!
• Keep the lines of communication open and communicate often with the family and the school personnel
• Make sure you understand the timelines for transition
• Prepare families by discussing transition at your first visit and then having ongoing discussions so that they know what to expect if and when they transition
• Have a debriefing meeting with your school personnel after the start of the school year to see what went well in the transition process and what could be done better next year
• Individualize the transition process based on the child and family and their specific needs
• Remember that we are all on the same team!

What would you add to this list?

What makes transition successful in your program? 

Share your tips, strategies, and success stories in the comments below!

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Talks on Tuesdays webinar series on transition and shared their insights and ideas!

For additional information and resources about transition, visit the EI Topics and Trends page on Transition on the VA Early Intervention Professional Development Center site.

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Transition (noun): The process of change from one form, state, style or place to another.

Summer is quickly drawing to a close and in your community, if it hasn’t already happened, soon a big transition will occur for many families. The new school year will begin with new teachers, new classrooms, and new friends. But what does this transition look like for families who have been in early intervention? Many of them may be making a big transitional leap from supports and services for infants and toddlers to early childhood special education through the public schools.

Some families eagerly await this new journey.

They look forward that their child will have opportunities to interact with other children close in age. Other families are excited that their child will be exposed to new learning and activities. Some families find that the consistency and predictability that school offers is a good match for their child and their family.

How about those families for whom this transition is emotionally challenging?

For some, this is the first time in their young child’s life that the parent will be separated from the child for a more extended time. Parents often share their fears and anxieties about who will feed their child or read his cues because he is not yet speaking. Safety is also a concern if a child has limited mobility. What if another child steps on him? Transportation can be anxiety producing.

In early intervention, we continually strive for seamless transitions but how do we support the family? Here are a few tips:

Allow ample time on early intervention visits to give the parent time to share concerns – Listen for subtle cues that the parent provides about what is producing the most anxiety. Once I heard a mother talking very excitedly about her child going to school but she repeatedly brought up that she was worried about him choking during lunch. After we addressed that specific concern, she planned to follow up with her son’s soon-to-be classroom teacher to share her questions and fears.

Suggest a “field trip” to the new school – With school authority permission, the parent and child can play on the playground or walk around the school grounds. One parent asked the principal’s permission and she and her child visited the older sibling during lunch. This served a dual purpose in that the older sibling had special lunch visitors but the child who would soon be transitioning had the opportunity to “practice” being at school.

Try some coaching! – Ask the parent to imagine a really good transition for her child. What would that look like? What would work well? What might be some challenges to anticipate? Develop a joint plan to start addressing some of those successes and barriers.

Are you preparing to help a child and family transition to early childhood special education in the near future? What suggestions or tips can you share with colleagues?

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