4/28/2016 NEBRASKA EARLY DEVELOPMENT NETWORK & CAPTA LAW - PDF document

4/28/2016 NEBRASKA EARLY DEVELOPMENT NETWORK & CAPTA LAW Nebraska Young Child Institute June 2016 Presented by Amy Bunnell, Nebraska Department of Education Julie Docter, Nebraska Dept of Health & Human Services Early Development Network (EDN) Overview • Serves infants and toddlers from birth to 3 who have developmental delays or disabilities • Provides year-round early intervention services to a child’s family as it relates to the child’s special needs • No income guidelines for eligibility • Evaluation and services provided at no cost to families • Voluntary program for families Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team (MDT) • Evaluation of child by school district trained professionals • Evaluates child functioning in developmental domains:  Cognitive  Motor Development  Communication Skills  Social/Emotional Development  Self-help skills 1

4/28/2016 Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) • IFSP is family driven plan • Provides support/services to child and family ◦ Identifies family’s concerns/priorities ◦ Developmental/health and Family outcomes ◦ Services provided in home or community settings ◦ Speech/Language services ◦ Physical and Occupational therapy services ◦ Vision and Audiology services ◦ Nutrition ◦ Early Childhood Special Education ◦ Social Emotional Supports/Services ◦ Transportation to receive services ◦ Assistive Technology services 45 calendar days from referral to MDT Evaluation and IFSP completion o Plan reviewed every 6 months or sooner EDN Services Coordination • Entitlement for all families • Begins with referral to EDN • Work with family, foster parent and all agency providers to coordinate and develop IFSP • Work with family and agencies to provide a seamless transition at age 3 Why Intervene Early? • 700 new neural connections are formed every second – especially through “serve and return” interaction with adults - foundation upon which all later learning, behavior and health depend. • https://youtu.be/m_5u8-QSh6A • 18 months of age : Disparities in vocabulary begin to appear • By age 3, children with college-educated parents/caregivers had vocabularies 2 to 3 times larger than those parents who had not completed high school. Source: Center on the Developing Child – Harvard University 2

4/28/2016 Benefits of Early Intervention • Improves child’s developmental outcomes across all domains: health, language, cognitive and social-emotional • Families better able to meet child’s special needs from an early age • Community benefits: reduces economic burden through academic success and a decreased need for special education in school CAPTA Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act What is CAPTA? • Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act • Federally enacted through Dept(s) of Education and Health and Human Services in 2003 to ensure maltreated infants/toddlers are referred to IDEA Part C • State mandate for HHS and EDN to work together to make referrals and follow up with a developmental screening or an evaluation for children under age 3 with a substantiated case of abuse/neglect. 3

4/28/2016 Why is the CAPTA Law Important? 2015: *1314 CAPTA referrals for children ages 2 and under in Nebraska. Research: • 50% of children in foster care demonstrate developmental delays at 4 times the rate of children in general population • Children with developmental delays have a higher propensity to be abused • Early experiences, both positive and negative, have a decisive impact on how the brain is wired https://youtu.be/bF3j5UVCSCA *source: NDHHS Why is the CAPTA Law Important? Evidence: • Highly specialized interventions are needed as early as possible for children experiencing toxic stress • Early Intervention is most effective in the first 3 years of life when the brain is establishing foundations of cognitive, social, and developmental domains. Without Intervention/services: • Children with developmental delays perform poorly in school, experience language delays, misunderstand social cues, and show poor judgment. This leads to failure in school, loss of employment, and high costs to the community. What works: • High quality early intervention and programs are more effective when the developing brain is most capable of change (first 3 years of life) and less costly to society. 4

4/28/2016 CAPTA Referrals Nebraska DHHS and EDN established policies and • procedures for CAPTA • DHHS must make a referral to EDN within 7 days of the substantiated finding Automation of CAPTA referrals • CAPTA Referrals, cont’d EDN Services Coordinator (SC) is assigned upon • receipt of referral and makes contact with family within 7 calendar days. EDN SC coordinates services to meet the • developmental needs of the child, once the child is found eligible for the EDN program DHHS remains responsible for all services related to • abuse/neglect involvement with the child and family CAPTA – Roles & Responsibilities Roles and Responsibilities for CAPTA (handout & • flowchart) State wards - Notification to School Districts •  Parent retains educational rights • EDN: 45 calendar days from referral to MDT/IFSP Informs Referral Source of outcome of Referral Distributes copy of MDT and/or IFSP (signed release or court order) • CFS: Utilizes MDT/IFSP info for safety assessment, court report/case plan – include updated IFSP Distributes copy of MDT/IFSP to court parties 5

4/28/2016 CAPTA • DHHS is mandated to make referral to Early Development Network (EDN) • EDN is a voluntary program • Collaboration between CFS manager and EDN Services Coordinator promotes family entering into EDN when there is reluctance to engage Unique Challenges of CAPTA referrals: • Change of placements and CFS worker assignments creates communication barrier between DHHS and EDN regarding child’s current placement, family location/contact info, case status • EDN is a voluntary program. Bio-parent retains educational rights – must sign consent for EDN evaluation and services. • Leads to high parent refusal rate due to distrust of public service agencies, overwhelming number of court- ordered services and difficulty in acceptance of child’s disability (“stigma”, parental guilt, further judgment by court/DHHS personnel) Importance of Collaboration • Critical Component: Collaboration between CFS and EDN • At Referral • At Pre-Hearing Conference • At Family Team Meetings • At IFSP Meetings Pre-Hearing Conference Collaboration: • EDN Services Coordinator can meet the Caseworker, the Attorney for the child, the parents, the foster parents all at once • Parents can meet with the EDN Services Coordinator to get information on services and provide consent • Background information from the DHHS Caseworker, Guardian Ad Litem, Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) can be given to EDN • Attorneys can be notified of the possibility of a developmental evaluation for the child that will be provided to the court 6

4/28/2016 The Payoff: • Gives parents a face to face contact with a Services Coordinator to increase engagement • Services Coordinator can set appointments with parents and foster parents rather than making multiple phone calls • Consents/Releases can be signed at the Prehearing Conference • Increased awareness for all involved in the Prehearing Conference about EDN Services • Increases awareness of the unique needs of children under age 3 for all the parties in the case and the Judge • DHHS Caseworker and EDN Service Coordinator meet regularly Overall Benefits of Collaboration: • Shared/timely info about family and services • Sharing of resources- efficiency and less staff time • Updated child/family info for Court Report/Case Plan • Sharing of local CAPTA data tracked by EDN (Handout - CAPTA suggestions for Local Discussions) Importance of Re-Referral to EDN • If child found not eligible for EDN services or parent refused to participate & child is not meeting developmental milestones at later date: PLEASE RE-REFER TO EDN (phone call) • EDN Processes begin again: • Home visit by SC • MDT • IFSP 7

4/28/2016 How can EDN assist you? • Share multidisciplinary evaluation (MDT) on child’s development • Provide you with Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) family outcomes • Court plan and IFSP can complement each other CAPTA • What court stakeholders can do: • Ensure that the child has been referred to EDN (early in the case) & follow-up on evaluation/screening outcomes • If necessary, make a second referral (later in the case) • If parents refuse, and concerns with infant’s/toddler’s development remain, request a court order for screening/evaluation • Become a member of Planning Region Team • What Judge’s, CFS, Attorneys, and CASA’s can do: • Develop an in-court procedure which child’s developmental milestones are routinely addressed (use developmental wheel & Infant-Toddler checklist) • Ensure referrals and re-referrals (when needed) are made to EDN • Introduce and review child’s Screening/MDT evaluation results and IFSP 8

4/28/2016 Resources EDN App A Family’s Guide to Early Intervention IFSPweb.org Home Visitation On-line Training Modules https://www.answers4families.org/classroom Thank You! Amy Bunnell Nebraska Department of Education 402-471-0817 amy.bunnell@nebraska.gov Julie Docter Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services 402-471-1733 julie.docter@nebraska.gov EDN Website: http://edn.ne.gov 9