H-7438 (Carson) & S-2512 (Valverde)
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) makes states responsible for delivering Early Intervention services to infants and toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities, and it makes states and school districts responsible for overseeing and delivering special education services to young children from age three to kindergarten entry.
In Rhode Island, the Early Intervention program is overseen by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) and delivered by 9 certified Early Intervention agencies. Preschool special education is overseen by the Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) and delivered by 35 school districts, one state-operated school (RI School for the Deaf), and one charter school (Highlander).
Both the Early Intervention and the Preschool Special Education systems in Rhode Island have been experiencing major financial and staffing problems that limit access for babies and young children to early childhood IDEA services.
Current Systemic Challenges:
- Early Intervention providers continue to struggle to attract and retain qualified staff. As of February 2024, there were 623 infants and toddlers who had been waiting more than 45 days for
- Since 2019, the number of children receiving Early Intervention services in Rhode Island has fallen by 21% and the percentage of children enrolled in Early Intervention who demonstrate improved skills and knowledge has dropped by about 10 percentage points.
- School districts struggle to attract and retain qualified teachers and clinical staff which has caused disruptions and delays in early childhood IDEA evaluations and services.
- In 2023, the Providence Public School District and the Rhode Island Department of Education agreed to a settlement plan citing “systemic failure to comply with federal law” to provide critical IDEA services to preschool-age A court-appointed monitor is overseeing the settlement plan.
- Statewide, districts complete developmental screenings for only 36% of preschool-age
- Children who live in the four core cities are less likely to be determined eligible for preschool special education (36%) than children in the remainder of the state (52%) with a great deal of variability across school districts.
- Children who live in the four core cities are more likely to receive their IDEA services in a self- contained classroom setting and are less likely to receive IDEA services in an inclusive general setting than children in the remainder of the state.
- There is a great deal of variability across school districts with Providence at 38%, Woonsocket at 60%, and East Greenwich at 95% of preschool children receiving services in an inclusive general education setting.
The Early Childhood IDEA Task Force bill would establish and fund a public-private task force to develop a financing and staffing plan for a coherent system of educational and developmental services for babies and young children with developmental delays and disabilities, from birth up to kindergarten entry(across both Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education).
The Early Childhood IDEA Task Force would:
- Be chaired by RIDE, EOHHS, the RI Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Parents Leading for Educational Equity, and Rhode Island KIDS COUNT.
- Be staffed by the Children’s Cabinet with $250K to hire expert facilitators and national IDEA policy consultants.
- Include parents, EI agencies, school districts, RIPIN, Sherlock Center, The Arc, The Autism Project, Early Head Start/Head Start, child care providers, and more.
- Require two reports, an interim report due December 2024 and a final report due October 2025. The reports will include:
- Cost estimates and recommended funding and staffing strategies to ensure the timely provision of high-quality early childhood IDEA services by qualified educators and professionals in natural and inclusive settings with sufficient dosage and
- Recommendations to remove barriers and expand access to education and training to increase the number of qualified professionals and the diversity of the early childhood IDEA workforce.
- An implementation plan and cost estimates to establish and maintain an ongoing multilingual public awareness and outreach campaign to educate families about developmental delays and disabilities and how to access early childhood IDEA
- An implementation plan and cost estimates to establish and maintain a multilingual family resource center to help families who are struggling with getting evaluations, starting, or maintaining access to early childhood IDEA services.
- Recommendations to ensure at least 80% of young children, from infancy up to kindergarten entry, receive routine developmental screenings.
- Recommendations to establish a monitoring system to ensure follow up on all early childhood IDEA referrals.
- Strategies to ensure children receive early childhood IDEA services in natural and least restrictive environments including community-based early care and education settings chosen be families.
- Strategies to enable community-based early care and education programs to support the enrollment, attendance, and full inclusion of young children with special health care needs, developmental delays, and disabilities.
- Recommendations to maximize continuity and minimize disruption of IDEA services for children from infancy through entry to kindergarten.
