Bridging the Gap Between Early Intervention/ Early Childhood and Child Welfare

1. Bridging the Gap Between Early Intervention/ Early Childhood and Child Welfare Barb Kempf, LMSW Permanency Director KVC Behavioral Health Care (Atchison, Leavenworth, Wyandotte) Scott Kedrowski, MS Coordinator of Wyandotte County Infant Toddler Services

2. History: In the Beginning • Agreement from KVC and ITS that the system needed improvement • General lack of staff knowledge of each others programs • Lack of knowledge of processes: KVC/ ITS • Presenting Barriers: • Time, Paperwork, Staff Turnover

3. Action steps: • Referrals: • Mapped referral process (See handout #1) • New referral form (See Handout #2) • Job shadowing • Identified point person from each agency • Educated Case Managers on referral process and paperwork, parent signature • Information back to KVC worker • Fax referral form (see handout #3) • referral by referral source (see handout #4)

4. Action steps: • Court issues: • Met with Judges and Court Service Officer to build understanding • Staff: • willingness of staff to see children in the full spectrum of natural environment • work cooperatively on IFSP and case plan meetings • ITS post evaluation recommendations always include early intervention services of some type which provides child welfare next steps • LICC: • a key piece being child welfare

5. Benefits: • More administrative involvement and communication • Diminished lack of responsiveness from workers • Completed child packets- timely services • Increased exchange of information concerning child/ family • Supported transition for a child moving from out of home care to permanency placement

6. Benefits: • Increased child find • Increased community knowledge of available services • Expanded KVC’s capacity to partner with other Early Childhood programs • Expanded ITS’s capacity to partner with other Social Service programs

7. Data: Referred from KVC to ITS

8. Data: Eligible Children Referred From KVC to ITS

9. More Data: Percentage of Eligible Children Referred from KVC to ITS that Qualify for Services

10. Data: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN? • CHILDREN REFFERED: • 2009 22 referred that was 37.2% of the possible children from KVC of those 50% qualified for ITS services • 2010 35 referred that was 56.1% of the possible children from KVC of those 29% qualified for ITS services • 2011 36 referred that was 81% of the possible children from KVC of those 33% qualified for ITS services • 2012 27 referred that was 100% of the possible children from KVC of those 33% qualified for ITS services • 2012 40 referred that was 100% of the possible children from KVC of those 48% qualified for ITS services

11. Ongoing Collaboration: • KVC and ITS provide bi-yearly all staff presentations • KVC identifies and allocates work space for ITS worker • ITS worker allocates weekly office hours at KVC • Joint visits when concerns arise with families • Joint staffings to increase collaborative planning • Shared professional development opportunities

12. How do we Bring it Home? • Group exercise (see handout #5)

13. Questions