April 7, 2016 - Illinois Interagency Council on Early Intervention

Audience

Open to the general public.

Time

10:00 am to 1:00 pm

Location

Illinois Primary Healthcare Association
500 South Ninth Street - 2nd Floor
Springfield, Illinois

Agenda

I. Call to Order

II. Council Members Introductions 

III. Approval of January 2016 Draft Meeting Report

IV. Follow-up on State Boards & Commissions Ethics Requirement

for Councils regarding Non-Illinois.gov Email Addresses

V. Bureau Update 

VI. APR/SSIP Update

VII. Update on EI Provider Handbook 

VIII. Ongoing Updates 

a. Service Delivery Approaches (SDA) Workgroup Recommendations Update 

 b. Cornerstone Updates

c. Parent Reimbursement Recommendation

IX. Website Postings 

X. IMPACT Update  XI. Council Appointments 

XII. Adjournment

Meeting Report

Present

Karen Berman, Ounce of Prevention Fund

Bob Cammarata, ICG Health Care Services

Yvonne Clearwater, IL Dept. of Insurance

Benny Delgado, Leaps and Bounds Family Services, Inc.

Brenda DeVito, CFC 6 Program Manager

Shauna Ejeh, Illinois Head Start Collaboration Office

Ann Freiburg, Part C Coordinator, DHS, Bureau of Early Intervention

Margaret Harkness, IL Council on Developmental Disabilities

Patricia Hooper, parent

Ginger Mullin, IL Dept. of Public Health

Brandy O'Connor, parent

Pam Reising-Rechner, IL State Board of Education

Kathy Schrock, Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley

Lynette Strode, Illinois Assistive Technology Program

Rita Wahl, CFC 20 Program Manager

Kathy Ward, DHS, Division of Developmental Disabilities

Absent

Diane Adams-Alsberry, CALM, Inc.

Gerri Clark, Division of Specialized Care for Children

Roselyn Harris, DHS, Bureau of Child Care & Development

Vicki Hodges, ISBE, McKinney-Vento

Kelley Washington, IL Early Learning Council

Deanna Pratscher, parent, Thornton

Sylvia Riperton-Lewis, IL Dept. of Healthcare & Family Services

Therese Wehman, Elmhurst College

Angel Williams, IL Dept. of Child and Family Services

Constance Williams, Ph.D., DHS, Division of Mental Health

Amy Zimmerman, Health & Disabilities Advocates

Council Packet

  • Agenda
  • Draft Council Meeting Report from October 1, 2015
  • Early Intervention Program Caseload Summary Report

Call to Order

 The Illinois Interagency Council on Early Intervention (IICEI) convened at 10:01 a.m. Kathy Schrock began by welcoming new Council members. She then expressed her gratitude for being named as Chairperson of the Council. She shared that she began her career in early intervention. She reminded Council members of their responsibilities as an advisory body and expressed her appreciation for the Bureau staff and their commitment to our system. The Council is designed to be an interagency body that represents the interests of the system's stakeholders. She hopes that all members will continue to be proactive and innovative, especially during these times of financial challenge.

Council Member Introductions

Kathy then requested that each member introduce him/herself. Pam Reising-Rechner announced that this will be her last meeting as she is retiring at the end of May. 

Approval of January 2016 Draft Meeting Report

Bob made a motion to approve the meeting report; Brenda seconded. Motion was approved. 

Follow-up on State Boards & Commissions Ethics Requirement for Councils regarding Non-Illinois.gov Email Addresses

Ann reminded people of the recently enacted requirement. She got confirmation that a notice of communication can be sent through their regular email to let members know that a new email exists in their Illinois.gov account. Current plan had unexpected costs associated with it. She is awaiting information from General Counsel before proceeding.

Bureau Update

No updates on Bureau Chief. Data manager position was posted, but no applicants have been forwarded. Another position (Public Service Administrator) still needs to be posted. Kathy asked if Council members could do anything to advocate for filling these vacancies. Ann said that it hasn't been her experience that this would help. Bob asked about any findings with the data presented. Ann said that the program caseload appears to be leveling off. Ginger reported that there has been a decrease in Illinois birth rate as well. Medicaid administrative deposits have significantly decreased (received about $500K of expected $4M). Feel that this is due to a technological error which the Bureau is trying to address. Bob asked about proposed Governor's budget where he thought he saw a $5M increase for early intervention. He was curious about the plans for this money. Ann explained that we traditionally have to pursue supplements and, at the current time, this increase would likely be used to help offset those requests.

APR/SSIP Update

Tahney provided information on the Annual Performance Report (APR), the report that each state has to submit to the federal government on an annual basis. The Bureau handles most of the Indicators, though Indicators 3 and 4 are handled by the Early Intervention Training Program, and Indicator 8a is handled by the Monitoring Program. Three of the indicators are compliance-driven, other indicators examine performance and/or system improvement.

Bob asked if it might be possible, in the future, to get the APR in time for an IICEI discussion, prior to submission. He also asked that generating ideas for timely provision of services be addressed at a future meeting. Karen asked that some data be provided to add to this discussion so that the Council has more context about the challenges, e.g. which services, which areas, how long the delays have existed. Kathy also suggested that the Program Managers on the Council be consulted to share their experiences in relation to the barriers they face when addressing this challenge. Bob also asked that the document showing Illinois' performance relative to the nation in regard to child outcomes be shared with Council members. Several Council members asked questions and offered options for improving response rates for the family outcomes survey, e.g. texting families a survey link, online completions option, explaining denominator to account for families lost to the system, having providers emphasize importance of completing the information, etc.

Indicator 1 - Timely provision of services: expected to be 100%, actual was 97.97%.

Indicator 7 - 45 day timeline: also expected to be 100%, actual was 99.82%.

Indicator 8a - Transition steps and services: expected to be 100%, actual was 92.54%.

Indicator 8b - Notification for child find: expected to be 100%, actual was 100% due to 27-month list sharing.

Indicator 8c -Timely transition conference: expected to be 100%, actual was 81.81%.

Results indicators are 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6. State sets their own targets for these indicators.

Indicator 2- Natural environments: target 90%, actual 88.13%.

Indicator 3- Child outcomes- Outcome 1- Positive Social Relationships: SS1 target 67.3%, actual 67.9%, SS2- target 63.7%, actual 60.92% (had to explain slippage); Outcome 2-Acquisition and Use of Knowledge and Skills: SS1 target 78.8%, actual 77.45%, SS2 target 50.2%, actual 48.05%; Outcome 3- Appropriate Behavior to Meet Needs: SS1 target 76.5%, actual 75.15, SS2 target 56.0%, actual 53.98%.

Indicator 4-Family outcomes- We instituted a change in the process during the past year to capture families' feedback as they exited the program. Know their rights-target 69.4%, actual 71.5%, communicate their child's needs- target 77.9%, actual 76.51%, Help their child develop and learn- target 74.5%, actual 74.11%

Indicator 5- Child find birth to one- target 1.26%, actual 1.54%

Indicator 6- Child find birth to three- target 3.65%, actual 4.45%

Indicator 11- State Systemic Improvement Plan- five year plan for a results driven indicator; broken into phases. Completed phase 1 which looked at our data. Just submitted phase 2- planning for improvement and evaluation. Now entering phase 3 which begins implementation. Claudia reviewed what was identified in phase 1 as challenges and the ideas generated for improving the situation in phase 2. Two primary coherent improvement strategies were identified, we will begin implementing these strategies in phase 3. First improvement strategy addresses the child outcomes measurement process and includes training on typical child development. Second improvement strategy addresses providers' utilization of family capacity-building practices in their work with children and families. Local leadership teams are an integral part of supporting local implementation of evidence-based practices. These teams might vary slightly across the selected CFCs but will contain a mix of local and state level representatives.

Council members felt like a good plan was submitted and again requested that the documents be presented for discussion prior to submission. Kathy also requested that new Council members receive a copy of the SSIP that was submitted. Some feel that the local leadership teams are an important addition to the local infrastructure. Claudia then clarified that it is a five year plan which starts initially in the three identified CFCs' Innovation Zones. Only effective strategies will be scaled up. While the "up to 20 hours" is a good idea, some members raised concerns about how it will be implemented. Claudia clarified that we are hoping that a phased in implementation will ensure that providers remain in system. Ginger lauded the Bureau for their efforts to improve the system and reminded everyone of the need for beginning with bite-sized pieces. Ginger offered to share a video about quality improvement with Bureau staff and Council members. 

Update on Provider Handbook

As part of the efforts to improve consistency, the Provider Handbook is being updated. As with other recent revisions, stakeholder input was critical and valued. The finalized document will be updated on an annual basis. The document will be shared with Council members when available. Handbook must go through the regular DHS approval process prior to posting.

Ongoing Updates

a) Service Delivery Approaches (SDA) Workgroup Recommendations Update- Not going to list out all recommendations again, but will provide an update of activities related to the recommendations. Updating manuals to include more information about evidence-based practices and focus on EI principles. Family Guide will be available soon. Rights document will also be updated. Attempting to create a program manual about EI, would likely be an internal Bureau document that would improve consistency through staffing changes. Created a workgroup to review evaluation/assessment tools. EITP reviewing curricula to reinforce EBPs and adult learning principles. Monitoring reviewing their tools to emphasize focus on quality. To the degree that was feasible, some SDA ideas have been incorporated into the SSIP. Karen reiterated her desire to have the recommendations posted. She also requested that some type of progress reporting be included for both EI as well as non-system stakeholders.

b) Cornerstone Updates- Cornerstone has started hiring again. Some of the requested edits, e.g. child outcomes edits, will be incorporated in the next release, but the release date is not yet known. IFSP edits will be taken up again in the future. Need to address Medicaid glitch first.

c) Parent Reimbursement Recommendation- Still on Ann's list of items to be addressed. Right now, reimbursements related to family fees are not being made.

Website Postings

SDA recommendations have not yet been posted. Will post them with an explanation of their nature and, perhaps, with some indication of current feasibility. Working on getting monthly statistical reports posted. Plan is to include a year's worth of information at a time. APR has been posted. SSIP has been posted. 618 data can be posted soon. 618 data includes things like our child count and demographic information about the children in the count. New information requested this year was a cumulative count of children served. Federal government compiles this information to provide a national picture of early intervention.

IMPACT Update

Illinois Medicaid Program Advanced Cloud Technology (IMPACT) was created in response to the Affordable Care Act. Chose a system that was operating in several other states. Implementation has not run smoothly. From the outset, the Bureau had requested a crosswalk for EI providers to improve understanding. EI is not the only system that has experienced difficulties. At this time, providers are slowly moving through, but many of the enrollments have not been successful. Many of the problems stem from identifying correct payee type and program affiliation. Manual not yet available to guide enrollment process. W-9s must be certified by Comptroller before enrollment is allowed. Trying to work through these differences in opinion. Originally anticipated that this process would proceed in phases according to provider type, but most phase deadlines have been extended. IMPACT staff have turned over frequently. Believe they have developed a workaround for providers who are just switching companies. Have gotten a few people through using this method recently (last week and a half). State must be in compliance by fall. Bob expressed how challenges are impacting providers and how this may ultimately impact service availability. Brenda asked what new providers could expect in terms of a timeline from credential packet submission to being an enrolled provider. Rob reported that they have heard anywhere from six weeks to six months. Primarily delay would be in IMPACT's switch from in process to active. Time may also vary based on provider type, e.g. PT and AT providers are subject to some additional screening measures. When system is working properly, Rob hopes that IMPACT will be completed by the time that the DCFS check (which is currently averaging nine weeks) has been returned. Kathy asked about who is ultimately accountable for the implementation of the IMPACT system and how the Council might support improved processes.

Council Appointments

As of today, there are now 25 Council members. Still missing three parents and one General Assembly representative. When we have our full complement, we will have 29 members (law states up to 30). Working on having a new members' orientation session at the Council meeting in July. Will be in contact with everyone about arranging the logistics. Kathy expressed how important that opportunity was when she joined the Council. Kathy also proposed that senior members of the Council consider offering to be mentors to the new Council members. She requested that an email be sent to attempt a matching process. Ann presented Pam with a plaque thanking her for her participation on, and contributions to, the Council.

Announcement

Next week is the Week of the Young Child. Bob hopes that everyone has something planned to celebrate.

Adjournment

The meeting adjourned at 12:45. Benny made a motion to adjourn, Bob seconded.

Contact Information

Jenni Grissom
IDHS - Bureau of Early Intervention
823 East Monroe
Springfield, IL 62701
Ph: 217/524-1596

email: jennifer.grissom@illinois.gov