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Developing a Community-Wide Transition System

	To get started, complete a survey of agencies and programs serving young children in your community, then download this sample invitation to the first interagency team meeting.

Part C. Part B. Early intervention. Home visits. Parent education. Child care. Family literacy. Preschool. Kindergarten! For the family of a young child, particularly one with special needs, the array of services can be dizzying. Where to start? Where to go? What rules apply now?

The system is not that much less confusing for the professional providing services. Communities that establish a plan to coordinate services among the various agencies smooth the transition process for everyone.

In her new book, Tools for Transition in Early Childhood, Beth Rous, head of the National Early Childhood Transition Research and Training Center, outlines a community-based model that has already been field tested and refined to reflect the realities of those providing services for young children. It offers step-by-step guidance (with forms agencies can copy) for establishing interagency policies and procedures that promote the transition of children between programs and providers.

The approach, based originally on the Sequenced Transition to Education in the Public Schools (STEPS) program, addresses common stumbling blocks, such as How do we get all the agencies to talk to each other?

The need for interagency collaboration

Early childhood programs, as with most human services programs, are often stretched to meet a growing need for services in a time of continually shrinking resources. Collaboration across agencies helps ensure that families receive the variety of supports needed to meet their needs, while providing a structure through which agencies can maximize resources and prevent duplication of services.

For example, a child and family may be receiving mental health services as part of the Head Start program they attend in the morning, but they may also be receiving similar services through referral from the Family Resource Center housed in the public preschool program they attend in the afternoon.

Collaboration across agencies can enhance services in a number of areas:

The need for collaboration is particularly important as children make transitions between agencies because this has been shown to be a time of high stress for families.

To underscore the importance of transition planning on a collaborative basis, many federal programs require transition planning among agencies. For example, Head Start, programs for children with disabilities under IDEA 2004, and the No Child Left Behind Act have specific recommendations or mandates for transition that include collaboration through interagency agreements, policies, and procedures.

Overcoming barriers

The nature and design of early care and education programs differs across communities. Different communities offer different programs. Even when the same type of program is offered (e.g., state preschool, Head Start), the programs themselves often have unique cultures and administrative and operational structures. This culture and structure are shaped by many factors, such as the size of the community or the leadership within the agencies.

For example, in one community, the superintendent of the public school system may feel strongly that collaboration among agencies is essential to quality services. She may therefore encourage and support interagency activities and events.

In another community, the superintendent may feel strongly that the school system meet the educational needs of children and their families but not—given limited resources—their social and emotional needs. Therefore, this superintendent may not support programs that link families to social services agencies such as the family resource center.

Because programs and services differ from community to community, transition issues and barriers also differ. Effective transition planning must tailor strategies and practices to reflect the unique needs and interests of the programs that offer services in the community.

Guiding principles for developing a community system 1. Communities must develop a consistent transition vision that can be used to drive decisions related to transition practices and activities. The vision that is used by the team must be developed with input from all of the key stakeholders in the community. From that point on, the vision serves as the major decision broker, meaning that all decisions are based on whether the resulting action moves the team closer to the vision. 2. The transition system must be built so that it integrates with existing structures and systems. Transition planning is not a standalone event. It is a complex activitiy often support by other program services and features. For example, transition planning related to preparing children for new environments is difficult to separate from the general curriculum in the classroom. Therefore, transition activities must be considered in the context of these other services. 3. Keep it simple: Use a system that is comprehensive and effective but not unnecessarily elaborate. This old adage is certainly true where transition is concerned. In determining the best way to address transition issues, the simplest approach is often the most successful. Elaborate systems tend to be hard to implement and maintain. 4. Understand that resolving “old” concerns and problems may create new ones. As is true with most systems change efforts, the efforts that fix or address one issue commonly have an impact on another part of the system. For example, the transition team may determine that they need a common referral form that can be used across agencies. The result may be a need for changes in agency policies and procedures to include the new forms and new training for staff on the use of forms and procedures.

Finding workable interagency approaches... Tools for Transition in Early Childhood: A Step-by-Step Guide for Agencies, Teachers, and Families MORE INFO >> The Developmental Systems Approach to Early Intervention MORE INFO >>