Audience
Open to the general public.
Time
10:00 am to 1:00 pm
Location
Moraine Valley Community College
9000 College Parkway, Building M
Palos Hills, Illinois
Agenda
- Call to Order
- Introduction of Council Members
- Approval of April 5, 2018 Draft Meeting Report
- Lead Poisoning Eligibility Workgroup Update
- Early Intervention Clearinghouse
- Early Intervention/Home Visiting Convening Update
- State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) Update
- Ongoing Updates
- IMPACT
- Service Delivery Approaches (SDA) Workgroup Recommendations
- Cornerstone
- Parent Reimbursements
- Budget Update
- Bureau Update
- Digital Signatures
- Tele-Practice Workgroup Update
- Council Fiscal Workgroup
- Service Delay Reporting Updates
- Council Membership Status
- Adjournment
Council Report
Present
Karen Berman, Ounce of Prevention Fund
Meghan Burke, Parent
Bob Cammarata, ICG Health Care Services
Benny Delgado, Leaps and Bounds Family Services, Inc.
Melissa Ehmann, Parent
Donna Emmons, Headstart
Kristy Doan, IL State Board of Education
Ann Freiburg, IDHS, Bureau of Early Intervention
Dee Dee Lowery, CFC 1 Program Manager
Ginger Mullin, IL Dept. of Public Health
Lori Orr, Governor's Office of Early Childhood Development
Kathy Schrock, Easter Seals DuPage & Fox Valley
Ralph Schubert, Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC)
Lynette Strode, IL Assistive Technology Program
Becca Trevino, Parent
Therese Wehman, Elmhurst College
Amy Zimmerman, Legal Council for Health Justice
Absent
J. Diane Adams-Alsberry, CALM, Inc.
Teresa Bertolozzi, Parent
Kelly Cunningham, IL Dept. of Healthcare & Family Services
Margaret Harkness, IL Council on Developmental Disabilities
Roselyn Harris, DHS, Bureau of Child Care & Development
Vicki Hodges, ISBE, McKinney-Vento
Heather Lalor, Parent
Rosie Perez, Parent
Rita Wahl, CFC 20 Program Manager
Kathy Ward, IDHS, Division of Developmental Disabilities
Angel Williams, IL Dept. of Child and Family Services
Constance Williams, Ph.D., IDHS, Division of Mental Health
Karen Woods, IL Dept. of Insurance
Council Packet
- Agenda
- Draft Council Report from April 5, 2018
- Council Membership and Composition Reports
- Early Intervention Program Caseload Summary Report
Call to Order
Kathy Schrock called the meeting to order at 10:02 am.
Introduction of Council Members
Kathy asked Council Members to introduce themselves.
Approval of April 5, 2018 Draft Meeting Report
Benny moved to approve the report. Bob seconded. No corrections requested.
Update on Lead Poisoning Eligibility Workgroup
On Monday, they will be conducting the first training for providers and CFC staff who will be involved in the pilot at Child and Family Connections (CFC) #1. Second training will be at CFC#7 on July 30th. Training will provide more information about the pilot as well as how to engage and support families whose children have been lead exposed. Providers will receive ASQ activity books for their work with families. Reach Out and Read will also be providing books for use. Got good news from the Illinois Children's Healthcare Foundation to support Erikson Institute's evaluation of the pilot. Working with physicians to refer children who have Blood Lead Levels (BLL) of 5 or above. The hope is that early intervention can mitigate some of the impact of lead exposure. Considerable mapping has been completed to determine how big of an impact automatic eligibility based on lead exposure would have. Currently feel that the involved CFCs should be able to handle the increased referrals. Department of Public Health didn't historically begin their interventions until BLL was 10. SB2996 has been passed to amend the reference level in IL related to lead exposure, bill is awaiting Governor's signature. In other states, those who are automatically eligible based on lead exposure often don't receive EI services until they exhibit delays. Illinois Council on Developmental Disabilities grant is being used to support some of the preparatory work in Illinois.
Early Intervention Clearinghouse
Sarah Isaacs from the EI Clearinghouse is entering their tenth year of service to early intervention. Sarah distributed some of their products to Council members and sent around a sign in sheet to receive the Clearinghouse newsletter. Families receive one printed newsletter each year. Primary charge is to support families involved in early intervention. They support many families who have concerns about their children's development, not just necessarily those in early intervention. They can be reached through the website, an 800 number, or their physical space in Champaign. They have recently focused on improving the website's accessibility to a wide array of families. They even have some of their webpages in Spanish.
Sarah highlighted resources available on the "Getting Started in Early Intervention" section. She also showcased some of the family stories included there. She reminded everyone that she is always looking for more stories so feel free to direct families her way. The resource guides on their website cover a number of topics. The Clearinghouse sends materials both through mail and library system. Many books are available as e-books. They maintain memberships with the three Illinois library systems so that material returns are easier for families. Can return materials via their public library. Clearinghouse also hosts the central directory for early intervention information and resources. Tip sheets in English and Spanish on various topics are also available for use by early intervention families and providers. Sarah reminded people about the videos for early intervention credit that are available on their website. State Systemic Improvement Plan messaging workgroup materials can be accessed via the website as well. She concluded her presentation with a rundown of a "day in the life of the Clearinghouse".
Early Intervention/Home Visiting Convening Update
Karen started by providing background on how this joint effort got started. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services posted a joint paper with recommendations for how MIECHV programs and early intervention could work together. Two large group meetings to review these recommendations and determine action steps were conducted. Group is currently working towards broadening the availability of centralized intake for EI and home visiting (HV) programs. Also surveying and holding focus groups to better understand the barriers that individuals in both systems encounter when trying to work together. Meetings of these workgroups are ongoing. Contact Karen if you are interested in participating on one of these workgroups. One win already being experienced through this work is that children found ineligible for early intervention will be prioritized for eligibility in Early Childhood Block Grant home visiting (prevention initiative) programs. Working to expand this to MIECHV and DHS funded programs as well. Would like to be able to track availability of home visiting for EI ineligible children and to track how many children are ineligible at first referral and become eligible when re-referred. DeeDee asked about the status of the surveys that had been sent to the CFCs in regard to home visiting. Lori needs to finish reviewing the information already received. Amy asked for clarification around prioritization of EI eligible children and if the survey asked about EI and HV working together for dually-enrolled children. Lori said that this was not included in the original survey. Benny shared that there is confusion within both systems about coordination for dually enrolled children. Donna said that this same concern is present in terms of early head start home visiting. Parents shared that better coordination would benefit families. Karen suggested that there may be benefit in adding a home visiting representative to the Council. She also acknowledged the work already beginning around coordination of professional development. Kathy commended those involved in this work and hopes this strong path towards providing a continuum of service for families continues.
State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) Update
Have yet to receive feedback from Office of Special Education Program (OSEP) on our SSIP report. Call later today to learn more about when we might hear about our submission. Ann provided some background on the SSIP for new Council members. We have primarily addressed our first coherent improvement strategy which targets improving the child outcomes summary process. Have just recently begun addressing the second strategy which aims to improve family engagement.
Ongoing Updates
- Illinois Medicaid Program Advanced Cloud Technology (IMPACT): Not much has changed since last meeting. Beginning to learn about some of the available reporting features. Still trying to work out challenges around assistive technology. Bob asked about information available to new providers about needing to obtain a NPI number and enrolling in IMPACT. Rob clarified that providers who are new need to obtain both an NPI number and enroll in IMPACT for credentialing. Bob asked for verification that provider's IMPACT registration will update with their license renewal. Heather said that there are a few exceptions to this, but it should work this way for most providers. They may need to contact IMPACT directly if they have a problem. Bob also asked about atypical providers and if this applies to licensed assistants. Ann clarified that it does and also applies to a variety of other provider types. IMPACT has not mentioned when enrollment for this group will begin.
- Service Delivery Approaches (SDA) Workgroup Recommendations: Nothing new to report, pending release of CFC bids. Karen asked that a commitment to getting the Recommendations posted be made.
- Cornerstone: Ann has been working with the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) to figure out the future data system for early intervention. She and her boss plan to meet with leads of DoIT to make some decisions soon. Karen asked that the requests for data changes in Cornerstone be shared with Council members, so people can familiarize themselves with the kinds of things we hope the new system can do. She also asked about early intervention's connection to the Illinois Longitudinal Data System work. It is unclear where this stands, but Ann expects to be contacted about this work eventually. Karen shared that NIU was interested in looking at return on investment for early childhood, but she feels that the focus of this work may have changed. Ann will see what she can learn. Kathy asked for this to be an item for discussion at the next meeting.
- Parent Reimbursements: More information will be available in the next CFC Procedure Manual revision. Amy asked to see it again as she doesn't remember the final version. Ann provided background on this item for new Council members. This is essentially a way for the system to address service delays, helping parents gain access to services when traditional methods haven't worked. DeeDee asked that some explanation around the new policy be provided to managers when the policy rolls out. Kristy shared that ASHA has a "provider finder" feature on their website that could help CFCs/families find providers in their area. It could be that other professional associations have this resource as well. Some of the logistics around reporting, particularly in regard to natural environments, still need to be resolved for the policy to be implemented successfully. Ann will reach out to her federal contacts to see what she can learn about what other states do. Benny shared that there can be differences in the way intervention is provided across systems, settings, and providers. This should be taken into consideration during rollout as well.
- Budget: Level funding for EI.
- Bureau: Ann asked her staff to stand. Sara Han is the new Data Manager and Tina Dailey is Ann's new assistant. Ann has been the Acting Associate Director of Early Childhood for the past couple of months. The new Associate Director should be starting on July 16th, relieving Ann of some of these additional responsibilities. Nakesha Hobbs is the new Associate Director.
- Digital Signatures: No new information available yet.
Tele-Practice Workgroup Update
Heather provided information about the workgroup's effort to date. Tele-practice would be another way to get services to the children and families who need them. A number of states are already using tele-therapy. Models vary slightly according to the survey feedback the workgroup has received. The workgroup is moving from gathering state level responses to getting information directly from providers. This method of service delivery addresses a number of current challenges to getting families service. There are still, however, some remaining challenges that would need to be addressed, i.e., internet access, privacy, training for providers.
Next steps include surveying providers who are using this approach, reviewing the legislative recommendations from the Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) task force, and considering a pilot program to explore benefits and challenges. Amy encouraged Bureau staff to participate in the ongoing HFS work and in the development of the tele-practice legislation. Heather mentioned that there is only one meeting remaining, during which the recommendations will be presented. She does plan to attend that meeting. Karen asked if there would be benefit in the Council providing a letter of support for EI's involvement. Ann will check with Kelly to see if that will make a difference to their work. Meghan asked about where in the process families' perspectives would be considered. Heather said this is still under consideration, it's just not one of the next three steps. Meghan reiterated that when the Bureau is ready to address families, she has students who may be able to support this work. Ralph shared that, based on his participation with the HFS group, there are a number of items still to be resolved. Bob made a motion for the Bureau to begin sharing the prepared educational information about tele-practice across the state. Benny seconded this motion. Workgroup members feel that some slides may need to be added explaining that this is something currently being explored. Motion carried.
Council Fiscal Workgroup
Ann shared fiscal information about federal/state funding for early intervention since 2010. She reminded everyone that the federal component is based on a formula. Funding has generally increased across time. Two sources of Medicaid funding- match for services and administrative reimbursement. Cannot claim reimbursement until payments have been made. Funding spent on provider payments and administrative contracts was also shared. Payroll, other expenses, and family fees information was included as well. All this was shared to reignite discussion on the possibility of convening a fiscal workgroup. Kathy said that a clearly defined purpose would be beneficial to guide the work of the group. Karen feels that one useful role the group could play would be mapping out the future fiscal needs of the program and how to satisfy them. Benny added that evaluating the system's efficiency could also be important. Benny made a motion to form a fiscal workgroup that is tasked with analyzing the fiscal health and capacity-building needs of the program. Karen seconded. Motion passed.
Service Delay Reporting Updates
With addition of Sarah, reports may be available in the near future.
Council Membership Status
Discussion held over to next meeting. Bob asked how people express interest in serving on the Council. Jenni shared that they can go to the Boards and Commissions website and nominate themselves. Bureau will share a link.
Other Items
Ann asked Brenda DeVito to come forward. Kathy presented Brenda with a certificate of appreciation for her work on the Illinois Interagency Council on Early Intervention (IICEI). Next IICEI meeting is October 4th in Springfield.
Adjournment
Therese motioned to adjourn the meeting and Bob seconded. The meeting adjourned at 1:12 pm.
Contact Information
Jenni Grissom
IDHS - Bureau of Early Intervention
823 East Monroe
Springfield, IL 62701
Ph: 217/524-1596
email: jennifer.grissom@illinois.gov
If you are need of special accommodations, please email or call Jenni Grissom.
