COS Birth to K Integration

Ways to integrate child outcomes into the Service Delivery and Progress Monitoring processes:

1. Schedule / provide services within the routines/activities associated with the outcome/goal and ensure focus is on the child’s successful participation (this requires success in all three early childhood outcome areas).
2. Use the outcomes as the framework for all conversations with families and other providers when describing the child’s functioning.
3. Document service delivery notes in terms of progress of the IFSP outcomes / IEP goals as they relate to the three early childhood outcomes.
4. Intentionally ask about the child’s functioning across all settings and situations to continue to collect information about global functioning and adjust service delivery as needed.
5. Complete authentic assessment, use age-anchoring resources, complete the COS Rating Prep Tool, and use the Decision Tree for all rating (summary statement) discussions at annual and exit IFSPs / IEPs.

Ways to integrate child outcomes and the COS rating discussion into the IFSP or IEP Development process:

1. Remind families of the goal of EI / PSE and explain that as a means of measuring how effective our services are, all programs across the country measure three early childhood outcomes. Explain how the discussion will look in the IFSP/IEP meeting and how often it will happen throughout services.
2. Use the three early childhood outcomes as the framework to document a narrative of the child's functioning.
3. Organize and document the Present Levels of Development (PLOD section of IFSP) or the Present Level of Academic and Functional Performance (PLAAFP section of the IEP) around the three outcome areas (to include all areas of development).
4. Age-anchor all of the information gathered through assessment activities about the child’s functional behaviors using tools that reference skills and behaviors associated with age-expected behavior:
   • Use the COS Rating Prep Tool to document
5. Based on all the information gathered, use the Decision Tree to complete the rating process (determine a summary statement) with the family.
6. Include the discussion about progress in outcome areas as all annual and exit IFSPs / IEPs. Remember almost all children will have made progress, even if the rating or descriptor statement remains the same as the previous rating.
7. Establish functional, meaningful, routines-based individualized IFSP outcomes or IEP goals. Effective IFSP outcomes and IEP goals will be easily associated with one of the three early childhood outcome areas rather than to isolated, domain-specific skills / tasks.

Ways to integrate child outcomes and the COS rating discussion into the Transition Process:

1. Organize transition information to be shared with the next team / program around the three outcome areas. Provide rich descriptions and documentation to ensure shared understanding of current functioning compared to same-age peers.
2. Determine local procedures for determining Part C Exit and Part B Entry ratings:
   • If Part C Exit completed prior to and without Part B team, ensure full and complete documentation to justify ratings (summary statements).
   • If Part C Exit and Part B Entry completed simultaneously, ensure full team has all information necessary to complete accurate ratings. Always implement the core components.
   • At a minimum, families are always the constant team member between both Part C and Part B teams having COS discussions.
3. Ensure all transferred files have full documentation and justification of COS rating discussions, including information about the child’s progress and functioning across settings.

Ways to integrate the three early childhood outcomes into the Child Find (including intake and referral) process:

1. Use the three child outcomes as an organizing framework for first conversations with families and stakeholders.
2. Explain the overarching goal of all early intervention and preschool special education programs and that in order to achieve that goal, we know that children need to 1) develop positive social emotional skills and relationships, 2) acquire and functionally use knowledge and skills to successfully participate in activities, and 3) use appropriate behaviors to meet their needs and lead to increased independence. Explain we will continue to use those areas as how we think and talk about their child’s development and participation in family and community activities.
3. Using the families concerns as a starting point, ask families how what they are concerned about impacts (a) how the child interacts with others, (b) how the child learns and participates in activities, and (3) how the child conveys his wants and needs and participates in self-care activities.
4. During first conversations with families, consider asking them how they think their child compares with their older children or same-age peers in each of the three outcome areas.
5. Use opportunities to share information about typical development as appropriate.
6. Infuse information about the three early childhood outcomes into the process of information gathering throughout child identification and referral.
7. Ensure public awareness materials (e.g., brochures, PSAs, websites, etc.) describe early intervention and preschool special education services in terms of:
   • Our Overarching Goal: "To enable young children to be active and successful participants during the early childhood years and in the future in a variety of settings - in their homes with their families, in child care, preschool or school programs, and in the community”;
   • Child Outcomes: (1) children have positive social emotional skills and relationships, (2) children acquire and use knowledge and skills, and (3) children use appropriate behaviors to meet needs; and
   • Family Outcomes (Part C): (1) families know their rights, (2) families effectively communicate their children's needs, and (3) families help their children develop and learn.

Ways to integrate child outcomes into the Evaluation & Assessment process:

1. Familiarize yourself with specific age-expectations prior to evaluation and assessment activities.
2. Ask families to describe their child's functioning in the three early childhood outcome areas:
   • Provide the “A Look at My Child’s Development” handout for families organize and document what they know about their child
3. Embed functional authentic assessment into conversations with families. Ask follow-up questions to learn about the child's functioning (in the three outcome areas) in daily routines and activities in different settings.
4. Throughout conversations, ask for family’s perspective on how the child’s functioning compares to same-age peers and / or their older children.
5. Use opportunities to share information about typical development.
6. Describe present levels in functional ways so statements can be used for IFSP or IEP development and for COS rating.
7. Document supporting evidence for COS throughout assessment and evaluation process.