MEMORANDUM

DATE: February 6, 2015

TO: Directors, Exceptional Children Programs

Preschool Coordinators, Exceptional Children Programs

FROM: William J. Hussey, Exceptional Children Division

John R. Pruette, Office of Early Learning

RE: Early Childhood Child Find Program: Revised Physician to Preschool Program Notification Process

In 2009, processes and procedures were jointly developed by the State ABCD Advisory Committee that includes representatives of Community Care of NC, the North Carolina Pediatric Society, Department of Public Instruction (Office of Early Learning and the Exceptional Children Division), the Department of Health and Human Services (Early Intervention Branch) and the NC Partnership for Children to facilitate the notification process between young children’s medical homes and special education programs (Part B or C) when a young child was suspected of having a disability by the physician.

The ABCD is a nationally recognized project that improves the quality of child development services in primary care medical practices by enhancing developmental screening, referral and follow-up for children ages birth - 5 in the context of the medical home.

In North Carolina, ABCD projects are implemented in close collaboration between local networks of Community Care of North Carolina (CCNC) and Smart Start local partnerships.

The Office of Special Education Programs has highlighted the collaboration between states’ ABCD projects and local special education programs as a best practice in early childhood Child Find efforts.

Revisions to these processes and procedures were necessary due to: 1) revisions to the NC Policies Governing Services for Children with Disabilities (amended July 2014), and 2) a request from the ABCD project for the standardization of a feedback process from the LEAs to the children’s Medical Home once the process was complete.

Attached are four technical assistance documents titled:

1) North Carolina Physician to Preschool Program Notification Process Chart,

2) Physician to Preschool Program Notification Process Chart Legend and Notes,

3) Physician Notification to the Exceptional Children Preschool Program, and

4) Early Intervention Feedback to the Medical Home form.

These documents can be found in their entirety at the Exceptional Children Division website: www.ncpublicschools.org/ec/policy or the Early Learning Network website: http://nceln.fpg.unc.edu/ecpreschoolresources. Training around these documents will be held in the spring.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Vivian James at , 919-218-8384.

Attachments

JRP/WJH/VKJ/jr

C: Sherry Thomas

Carol Anne Hudgins

Tracy Riddle

ABCD state advisory board