Using Interagency Collaboration to Support Family-Centered Transition Practices

Abstract

Harry's mother, Lanie, looked around the table at all of the professionals who had come together to write Harry's Individualized Education Plan (IEP): Harry's service coordinator, the school district preschool coordinator, the early childhood preschool consultant, the child care center director, Harry's child care provider, and his physical therapist. She reflected back on the preparations that had led to this meeting: There were multiple conversations with Harry's service coordinator, a parent transition planning workshop sponsored by the school district that Lanie attended 3 months ago, and visits to several school district preschool programs to learn more about the continuum of services available for preschoolers. Lanie had initially dreaded thinking about Harry's transition at age 3; however, now that the time was closer, Lanie felt confident that both she and Harry were ready for any changes they might encounter.

Home–School Collaboration for Embedding Individualized Goals in Daily Routines

“…As young children transition into the school system, the focus of intervention often changes from being home-based and familycentered to school-based and childfocused (Branson & Bingham, 2009 Describe your classroom's typical daily schedule (major activities that occur each day). 8:30 a.m.-Tabletop toys (lacing, puzzles); 9:00 a.m. snack, 9:15 a.m. circle time (songs-loves look who came to school today; days of the week; calendar; colors; finger plays; movement; story) Centers: 4-5 children at each center (blocks, dramatic/dress-up, fluid play, sand/messy, art, computer); about 10:20 a.m. read another story (wh questions); 10:30 a.m. line up and go outside for 30 min; back inside at 11:00 a.m. for lunch *Thursdays-Music time for 20-30 min before lunch; *Tuesday mornings Occupational Therapy (OT) activity Toileting/ wash hands; around noon-Soft music/nap; about 1:30 p.m. wake up small art activity; snack at 2:00 p.m.; free play with books/ puzzle then dismissal (2:30 p.m.)…”

Education Organization Models that Enhance the Success of Students with Special Needs

“…Our findings have identified certain courses of action that would make more effective service organization models, including an inclusive approach [20], [10] entailing collaboration of all the parties involved [2], [19], [3]. Others try to make more visible the services that are already offered [4]; [18] and help the students make a better use of the services they are offered [15].…”

“…A service organization that facilitates school transitions comprises collaboration among early childhood stakeholders, the school board, and kindergartens. Additionally, it envisages a system of gradual changes where families whose children will live the transition between early childhood and tailored early intervention services are supported [3]. They propose three successive stages to ease the transition:…”

Needs of Military Families: Family and Educator Perspective

“…These added roles and responsibilities can lead to reduced time for families to engage in other activities, such as work, leisure activities, and personal care (Dabrowska & Pisula, 2010; Kuhlthau, Kahn, Hill, Gnanasekaran, & Ettner, 2010). Finally, stress may develop because these added roles and responsibilities are exacerbated by the need to navigate multiple complex service systems with limited understanding of each service system (Branson & Bingham, 2009; Rous & Hallam, 2012).…”