Vermont Family Network hosts the Chittenden County Children’s Integrated Services – Early
Intervention (CIS-EI) program which provides early intervention services to
children from birth to age 3 and their families. The CIS-Early Intervention
program cooperates with a variety of community agencies and the state
CIS-EI in serving young children and their families. The program
- serves children who have developmental delays or a health condition which
may lead to a developmental delay
- provides coordinated services in natural environments, such as home and
early care and education programs where children without disabilities also
participate
- integrates in a seamless way as possible developmental interventions that are
interesting and functional into the daily routines of the children and families.
Call (802) 764-5294
New! Online Course:
This is a new online elearning course about Early Childhood Transition: What happen's when my child turns three? They are geared for parents to better understand the process that occurs when their child exits Early Intervention and enters Essential Early Education (EEE) or other community based settings. The course takes about 25 minutes or you can take the course in sections. Since these are brand new we really appreciate you taking the time to fill out the evaluation when you are done so that we can make improvments. Click for evaluation. Thank You!
click to start course
FAQ
What is Children's Integrated Services -Early Intervention Program?
Families are central to the lives of children and parents know best what they want for themselves and their children. Supportive and developmentally appropriate information and early intervention programs that honor the expertise and experience of each family can be helpful to parents when there are questions and concerns.
Children's Integrated Services Program is a resource for families when they have quetions or concerns about their child's development during pregnancy, infancy and early childhood up to age 6. Within that program is Children's Integrated Services-Early Intervention Program (CIS-EI.) The Early Intervention Program is a family-centered coordinated system of services available for families with children from birth to age three who have or may have a health condition which could lead to a delay in development.
Do you have a question or concern about your child?
If you have a question or concern about your child's development or if your child has a special health condition, you can call the CIS-EI program to discuss your concerns and make a referral. CIS-EI brings together families and service providers from multiple agencies and schools across the community which can include family resource coordinators, medical social workers, developmental educators, speech and language pathologists, physican therapists, occupational therapists, mental health specialists, autism specialists, nutritionists, vision and hearing specialists, assistive technology professionals. Many of these providers work together regularly on collaborative teams in your community.
What happens after you make a referral?
Once you make a referral, a member of the collaborative team in your area will come to your home or a place that works for you to listen to your concerns and hear about your child's development and routines.
If you choose to have an evaluation, an early intervention provider from your child's school district and a collaborative team member related to your area(s) of concern will come to your home and/or your child's child care program to assess your child's overall development. Areas of development that will be observed, discussed with you and assessed include speech, language and communication; motor development; understanding of objects/cognitive skills; self-help and coping skills; feelings and emotions; and relationships to people/social skills. CIS-Early Intervention providers work to ensure that your child and family have access to the widest array of services and resources available to you to best support your family throughout these early and important years.
What happens after your child's development is assessed? What if your child has a delay or special health condition that may lead to a delay?
After your child's assessment, your confidential evaluation report will be shared with you and if your child has an observable and measurable delay in an area or if they have a health condition that may lead to a delay such as prematurity, low birth weight... they are eligible for early intervention services at no cost to your family.
If you choose, you will work as partners with members of the collaborative team of professionals from your area to develop and implement an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP.) Along with the collaborative team members, you make up your child's core team.
The IFSP will reflect the goals you have for your child and family, the services that will be provided, as well as the frequency of services and the setting in which they will be provided. It will honor and take into account your routines, culture, lifestyle and community. Services are provided in your child's natural environments and the places that are most convenient to your family: your home, your child care center, community playgroup or other places in the community.
The IFSP is a flexible plan which changes as your child grows and develops. The initial IFSP will be developed within 45 days of your referral and services will begin within the month of your IFSP meeting.
Who are the people that will support your family and what is your role?
As parents, you play a critical role in carrying over early intervention strategies between visits with your providers and during visits with your early intervention service providers. You are the most important people in your child's development and on the core team. Your ongoing feedback and input will help shape your visits with providers as well as your IFSP. You can stop participating in the CIS-EI Program at any time. It is a voluntary program available to you at no cost.
You will likely have a regular visitor, a primary service provider. This could be a developmental educator, a speech and languge pathologist, a physical therapist or an occupational therapist. This primary service provider will provide direct service to you and your family with play-based early intervention. If your child has multiple areas of concern you may have multiple visitors on your core team who specialize in different areas of development. All families have access to information from all members of the collaborative team even if you have one primary service provicer. The members of the collaborative team in your area meet regularly and with your permission, can consult with one another to best serve your child across all areas. A service coordinator is another member of your family's core team.
Family Resource Coordinators offer an important component in providing family-centered care to families. Family Resource coordinators are parents of a child with special needs and is a member of the core team. They are often the people who take your referral or make first contact with you to meet you. They can participate in the eligibility determimation process and the development and implementation of the IFPS. Family Resource Coordinators also provide you with information about the range of community resources and can work to connect you with other parents in your community.
The service coordinator is a member of the collaborative team in your area and will be provided to your family to help arrange services, support you with accessing resources and to facilitate meetings and transitions. The service coordinator could be your primary service provider, a family resource coordinator or a medical social worker, depending on your family's needs and wishes.
All members of the collaborative team are mandated by the state of Vermont to report any concerns about abuse and neglect.
What will services look like over time?
You work with your child's providers to review your IFSP and create new goals if needed every six months or sooner if you choose. A number of children meet the goals you set for them and there are no longer concerns about their development. If your child develops age-appropriate skills across all areas, they exit from the program after an assessment shows that there are no longer delays in development. If your child is no longer eligible for CIS-EI services, your core team members can discuss with you other opportunities in the community for your child and family.
If there continue to be concerns about your child's development three months prior to your child's third birthday, you can choose to make a transition plan for your child with the CIS-EI service providers you have at that time and with educators from the school district you live in. If your child continues to show concerns at the age of three or begins to show concerns between the ages of three and six, the school district in which you live will provide your child's education services, also known as Essential Early Education (EEE.) These services are often offered at the elementary school in the district you live in. Families work together with the school based interventionists to develop Individualized Education Plans (IEP). If a child is transitioning from CIS-EI Programs at age three, members of your Early Intervention Core Team can also support you and the school based team in the IEP process.
What are the costs of EI services?
There is no cost to the family for receiving Early Intervention Program. With the family's permission, insurance and medicaid can be billed for services to ensure that CIS-EI Programs are sustainable. If a family receives a bill for services or copayments from their insurance company, the Family Resource Coordinator on your core team will arrange payments for such.
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