Project Description:
1) Need - The Young Children with Special Needs and Disabilities Council (YCSNDC) has established a Service Partnership for children birth to five with special needs and disabilities who do not meet current eligibility requirements for Part C or Part B. The mission is to conduct and support activities providing a comprehensive and coordinated service delivery system for children birth through five with special needs and disabilities and their families that is culturally competent, family centered, and incorporates best practices.
2) Overall goals and objectives - The overall goal of the Service Partnership developed by the YCSND Council is to ensure that young children, ages birth to five, in need of services, who do not meet eligibility requirements, are able to receive appropriate interventions.
Children identified will be referred to the Care Coordinator who will assist and support families in identifying and determining needed services such as small group language and behavioral interventions, interim therapeutic interventions, follow-up assessments, staff development, and family education in collaboration with community providers. These services will be provided in the natural environment, either at home or in inclusive child care centers.
3) Unusual features - Collaborative partners include Early Steps (North and South), Miami-Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS) Prekindergarten Program for Children with Disabilities, the Florida Diagnostic and Learning Resources System South (FDLRS-S) and two participating child care centers. Collaborative partners who will serve as service providers during the planning phase include ARC/Project Thrive, Bertha Abess Children's Center, the Debbie School, Easter Seals Miami-Dade, Healis Therapy, Hearing and Speech Center of Florida, Neytz haChochma, and Speech Pathology and Educational Center, Inc. Additional collaborative partners who are members of the YCSNDC who will be involved with the planning phase include Children's Medical Services, Head Start/Early Head Start, Healthy Start Coalition, the Early Learning Coalition Natural Environment Educational Development Program (NEED), Family Central, Parent to Parent of Miami, South Miami Hospital Child Development Center, United Cerebral Palsy, the University of Central Florida, and the University of Miami.
4) Expected benefits - A community benefit of the Service Partnership will be to avoid the costly and intensive trajectory of future exceptional student education for these identified children. Outcomes of the pilot project included services for 20 children identified by our partners as needing services but not meeting eligibility requirements, and screening for 200 children attending two child care centers, and provision of services to an additional 45 children who would not have formerly qualified for services.
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Rural/Remote, Urban
