Purpose Statement
Introduction
Family Centered Principles/Practices
Parent Involvement
Confidentiality
Outreach
Early Identification/Screening (Child Find)
DHSS
Department of Education & Early Development
Referral
Evaluation and Assessment Process
Service Delivery: Development and Implementation of Plans
Transportation
Transition
Professional Development: Training & Technical Assistance
Resource Sharing
Information Management
Problem Solving
Agreement Implementation and Review
Signatories

PURPOSE STATEMENT
The purpose of this interagency agreement is to ensure the coordination services for children with disabilities in Head Start, Early Head Start, School District Early Childhood Special Education, Early Intervention/ILP, Healthy Families, Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities, Public Health Nursing, Child Care Programs, and other programs for children within the Departments of Health and Social Services, and Education & Early Development; hereafter referred to as "We".   We agree to work toward universal availability of quality, inclusive early childhood programs for all young children birth through age eight and their families.

This agreement is intended to strengthen relationships among and between agencies working with young children and their families.  It strives to use clear and respectful language and recognizes the leadership role of parents of children with potential or diagnosed disabilities.  This agreement describes the role of individual state agencies and their responsibilities when working in partnership for the benefit of children and families in our state.  This agreement may also be used to guide the development of local interagency agreements.

Programs in local Head Start, School Districts, Early Intervention/Infant Learning (EI/ILP's), Child Care, Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD) , Public Health Nursing, and Healthy Families are expected to have written agreements that include Child Find, Parent Involvement, Service Delivery, Transition, Personnel Development and Information Sharing.  Local interagency agreements developed by communities may be much more specific based on community needs.

INTRODUCTION
In the state of Alaska, there are two major systems serving children, ages birth through eight years of age, who experience disabilities or developmental delays:

• The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) administers: the: (a) Early Intervention/Infant Learning Program (EI/ILP) for children, ages birth through two, with disabilities or developmental delays, (b) Healthy Families for families at risk, ages birth through five, (c) Public Health Nursing (PHN) that provides Early Periodic Screening, Diagnosis, & Treatment (EPSDT) and other health services, and (d) Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities (MH/DD) with a focus on mental health and developmental disabilities services to children and adults of all ages.
• The Department of Education & Early Development (EED) administers; (a) Head Start and Early Head Start comprehensive programs for children ages birth through eight years from low-income families including children with special needs; (b) the Child Care Program subsidy and program services for children birth through age 12; and (c) Special Education Programs for children 3 through 21 years of age.

FAMILY CENTERED PRINCIPLES / PRACTICES
We embrace the key elements of family centered practice, which include,
but are not limited to:

• Recognizing that the family is the constant in a child's life, and that young children are dependent on their families for their survival and nuturtance.  THEREFORE, service systems must support the delivery of services that enhance the family's capacity to meet the multiple needs of its member with special developmental needs;
• Facilitating parent/professional collaboration at all levels of services, recognizing that no one single agency or discipline can meet the diverse and complex needs of the child with special developmental needs and their family.  THEREFORE, service systems must support collaboration and partnerships between families and providers in planning, implementing, and evaluating services;
• Acknowledging that each family has its own structure, roles, values, ethnicity, beliefs, coping styles and unique needs.  THEREFORE, service systems must support practices that honor the racial, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic diversity of families, and respect the care and nurturance that the family provide for their child;
• Supporting the family as they, in their natural care-giving roles, make decisions about their child.  THEREFORE, service systems must support the sharing of complete and unbiased information with parents on a continual basis and in a supportive manner acknowledging that  parents know their child best;
• Encouraging and facilitating family-to-family support and networking.  THEREFORE, service systems must support efforts to connect family's with each other and with other community agencies providing parent and family support services;
• Implementing comprehensive policies and programs that provide financial support to meet the needs of the family; THEREFORE, systems must support collaboration and partnerships between families and providers in financing services; and
• Designing accessible service systems within natural settings including the child and families' own environment.  THEREFORE, systems must support efforts to assure that the family has access to services that promote the inclusion of the child and family within their community.

PARENT INVOLVEMENT

We recognize that parents know their child best and have primary responsibility for their well being.  Parents are their children's first and most important teachers and advocates.  We encourage policies that provide families with information, resources, training, and support to assist them in making informed decisions.  We are committed to supporting the leadership role of parents in the planning and provision of services for their child. We agree to communicate and safeguard the rights of parents and their child. As parents are equal partners in the development of services for their child, we will respect and establish policies that embrace opportunities for shared decision-making regarding policies and practices.

CONFIDENTIALITY

Confidentiality of information is required for the protection of the child and their family.  We respect the right of the family to control personal information shared with staff and to restrict access of that information by other agencies.  Written parental consent is necessary prior to exchange or sharing of personal information between our agencies.

OUTREACH
We agree to share responsibility to:

• Share and frequently update information among our agencies about available services and resources;
• Develop resources that inform families about early childhood and early intervention services;
• Promote public awareness of all community resources available to  the child and their family; and
• Support local agencies to develop policies and procedures, as well as resources that inform the family about early childhood and early intervention services in their communities.

EARLY IDENTIFICATION/SCREENING (CHILD FIND)
We agree to share responsibility to:

• Develop policies and procedures that support local agencies to establish and coordinate activities to identify children who may have disabilities;
• Develop policies and procedures that support local agencies to plan and implement developmental and health screenings in collaboration with other local agencies; and
• Develop policies and procedures to assure those early identification/screening activities in accordance with state and federal standards and regulations governing each program.

DHSS

• Will assure that their programs have written Child Find procedures and implement those procedures for identifying children from birth through two years of age who need early intervention services;
• Will provide funding to their local programs to conduct Child Find activities for children from birth through two years of age and will encourage coordination of Child Find activities with PHNs, Head Start, Child Care and School Districts;
• Will assure that their local programs provide the local Head Start program and School Districts with timely referrals of children screened and suspected of a disability prior to their third birthday.  (If the child is eligible for special education services a transition-planning meeting must be convened by the EI/ILP at least 90 days prior to the child's third birthday); and
• Public Health Nursing will collaborate with the local EI/ILP, School District, Child Care and/or Head Start Programs regarding EPSDT (Early Periodic Screening & Developmental Testing), which may be part of Child Find activities.

Department of Education & Early Development

• Will ensure that Alaska Head Start grantees implement a developmental screening plan and encourage local child care programs to collaborate with the screening process;
• Will adopt policies and procedures to assure that Head Start grantees develop and implement a disabilities service plan that provides for active recruitment of children with disabilities and provides health and developmental screening of all Head Start children.  These services should occur within 45 days of enrollment for developmental screens;
• Will assure that local Head Start and Child Care programs provide the local EI/ILP and School Districts with timely referrals of children screened and suspected of having a delay or disability as mutually agreed by both local agencies.  The intent is for eligible children to receive special education services by their third birthday and for infants and toddlers to receive early intervention services within 90 days of the child's comprehensive evaluation;
• Will assure that the local Head Start programs obtain signed parent permission to exchange information prior to referral and that School Districts  accept referrals and provide timely evaluations of any child suspected of having a disability; and
• Will assure that each School District establishes and implements Child Find activities for children, ages three through twenty-one, who are suspected of having disabilities and who are in need of special education and related services.

REFERRAL

We agree to implement policies and procedures to support local programs to:

• Make referrals to each other's programs throughout the year with parental approval;
• Accept referrals throughout the year with parental approval, understanding that a referral does not guarantee acceptance into the program, as eligibility must be considered;
• Notify the referral source about the status of referrals within thirty days or sooner if possible; and
• Orient parents to the referred program.

EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT PROCESS

We agree to support policies and procedures to ensure that once a referral is received, comprehensive evaluations are completed in accordance with the individual program requirements. Determination of program eligibility is to be made according to the criteria and based on regulations governing each program. 

We support policies and procedures that ensure comprehensive evaluations that  include a review of data already available on the child  (e.g. information and evaluations provided by the parents, preschool, child care observations, home-visiting programs, classroom-based assessments, interventions, observations, and teacher or other service provider observations). A necessary final step of the assessment process is the identification of additional information or resources from the family and appropriate staff from participating programs.

SERVICE DELIVERY: DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF PLANS

We support policies and procedures that encourage program providers, specialists, parents and other key people to collaborate in the development of individualized plans for children with disabilities, ages birth through eight.

• We support policies and procedures to ensure those programs;
• Provide training and resources to actively support meaningful parent participation;
• Explore various options to deliver services for children with disabilities; and
• Actively support and educate parents of their rights and responsibilities.

We support the recognition of the leadership role of parents in the development of plans related to the child and family's goals, and provide support to maximize opportunities for family involvement in this process such as:

• Providing easily understood fact sheets such as those available from local, state and national parenting organizations;
• Encouraging parents to invite members of their support network to team meetings;
• Encouraging parents to ask questions and to make their support needs known;
• Helping arrange transportation and child care if needed; and
• Ensuring that the individualized plan(s) clearly respect(s) the parent's desires and interests for services for their child and family.

We support providers participation in the development of a child's plan including providing adequate notification of meeting time, date, and location, as well as;

• Accommodating of family schedules and meetings in homes or other natural settings comfortable for parents;
• Implementing of services and support of environments that are needed to achieve desired outcomes in the plan;
• Providing copies of the plan to staff from collaborating programs in a timely manner, with written parental consent; and
• Ensuring the timely and ongoing sharing of information concerning progress related to the child and family's needs as stated in the plan.

According to our practices and principles, parents are equal partners of the team.

TRANSPORTATION

We support development of policies and procedures that facilitate collaboration in meeting the transportation needs of the child and family.

TRANSITION

We recognize the importance of a carefully coordinated and timely transition for  the child and family moving from one placement to another.  It is the intent of this agreement that programs will cooperate to ensure smooth, coordinated and appropriate transition of the child and their family with developmental delays.  It is also the intent of this agreement that programs have written transition plans that fully involve parents in this process, as well as staff from the current and next placement.  Transition procedures will vary from program to program depending on local policy and the individual needs of the child and family.

We agree to share the responsibility for smoothly coordinated transitions for the child and family by supporting policies that promote:

• Convening timely transition planning with parents and program staff providers, beginning at least three to six months prior to transitions;
• Sharing of information about individual program transition procedures with parents and collaborating staff;
• Sharing information about program options with parents, ensuring next placement orientation for the family and linking transitioning parents with other parents who are familiar with the process;
• Transferring of records to the next placement with written parental consent, offering opportunities for the child to experience and become comfortable with the next placement;
• Meeting staff of next placement and meeting with parents and staff from all programs to address concerns and develop an effective transition plan;
  Training and technical assistance to program staff regarding the specific requirements to facilitate transition of eligible children; and
• Providing recruitment information and application materials to parents and to local programs to refer children with disabilities for evaluation.

In some situations, services may change or end as a result of transition to a new program.  In conjunction with parents, we support policies and procedures that ensure the continuation of services or replacement of services according to the stated needs of the family.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT: Training &Technical Assistance

We recognize the expertise of staff and parents of our programs and agree to maximize these personnel resources by reciprocal training, collaboration, and consultation.

Professional development activities will be carried out in accordance with each regulations and requirements of each agency/program. DHSS and EED shall discuss the establishment of collaborative pre-service and in-service training and training dates.  These dates will be considered for planning joint state-level conferences and in preparation of Alaska Comprehensive System of Personnel Development.  Every attempt will be made to coordinate training dates with local School Districts, Head Starts, Child Care, and Healthy Families, PHN, MH/DD and EI/ILP programs that provide training.  Local programs will be encouraged to share local personnel development activities.  (At the state level, attendance at the summer academies will continue to be available to program personnel.)

We share the responsibility to:

• Inform and provide technical assistance to programs on the interpretation of this State Memorandum of Agreement;
• Plan, fund and conduct joint in-service and on-going training and staff development opportunities at the local, regional, and state levels; and
• Become participants of a statewide network which focuses on informing partner programs about upcoming in-service, and collaborating/organizing ongoing training and staff development opportunities.

RESOURCE SHARING

We agree to share the responsibility to ensure that:

• Funds and resources are pooled, when appropriate, to ensure comprehensive, integrated service delivery;
• Policies are developed and supported that allow opportunities to share staffing and operation of inclusive playgroups, and collaborative classrooms;
• Opportunities exist to share information about effective programs and practices; and
• Financial resources are identified and allocated in response to collaboration activities that provide seamless, inclusive practices.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

We agree to develop policies that support a system of shared resources including personnel, information management and resource libraries.  Local agencies may negotiate an exchange of personnel and/or services with or without an exchange of funds, depending on the needs and resources of each provider.

DHSS and EED will collaborate on data management issues of mutual interest and encourage efforts at the local level to develop compatible systems for collecting and reporting aggregate information on children served and services provided. 

We encourage the use of common or similar planning formats, forms for the release of information, and forms that will facilitate communication between agencies.  Procedures to obtain parent permission and to ensure confidentiality will be implemented by both agencies as required by statutes and regulations.

PROBLEM SOLVING

In the event that misunderstandings or differences of opinion occur related to this agreement, the signers or their designees will meet to reach a solution.  In the event that a resolution is not achieved, the Commissioners or their designees will meet to resolve the issue or to appoint a mutually agreed upon mediator.

AGREEMENT IMPLEMENTATION AND REVIEW

This agreement will be reviewed every three years from the date of signature, updated as needed and remain in effect until modified or terminated.  The respective departments will disseminate this agreement to their respective programs and grantees. 

• Head Start Region X and Region XI training resources, through the Quality Center and the Disability Services Quality Center in Region X and Region XI, may assist with the;
• Development and implementation of local agreements;
• Provision of opportunities and mechanisms for collaboration of training and technical assistance statewide.

We will support procedures for regular review and update of local agreements. The Head Start Collaboration Office will facilitate the review and update of this interagency agreement as appropriate. The Head Start Collaboration Office agrees to facilitate discussion of issues that require collaboration.

SIGNATORIES

Each agency, by the signature below of its authorized representative, hereby acknowledges understanding of this agreement and agrees to be bound by its terms.

This agreement is executed on behalf of the Alaska Departments of Health and Social Services and Education & Early Development through the undersigned representatives on the dates indicated after their signatures.

_____________________________________     Date_______________
Richard S. Cross, Commissioner
Alaska Department of Education & Early Development

_____________________________________________Date_______________
Karen Perdue, Commissioner
Alaska Department of Health and Social Services