Early On Program Eligibility and Enrollment

Highlights

Record Level: Student by year by collection by program 
Record Count: approx. 13,500 students per collection per year 
Years Covered: School Year 2013 - Present 
Population Coverage: Student participants in state-funded Early On services

The Early On and Early Childhood Special Education researcher file contain longitudinal student-level program data reported in the MSDS General collection. Available data reflect information about Early On program participation and services received under Early On. Early On data is obtained in 3 separate collections: fall, spring and year. Data is available for a student during each year in which they were enrolled in an Early On program.

In the case of Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) services, the universe for this data is children who receive referrals for ECSE and for whom parents consent to be evaluated. This includes all cases even if the child is found to be ineligible for ECSE. For Early On, on other hand, the universe is children who are found eligible for services upon evaluation. For Early On, therefore, the results of initial evaluation are only reported for eligible children – eligible for Early On and/or Michigan Mandatory Special Education.

If you are new to these programs, please review our Early On & Special Education Services Primer.

Program Eligibility

Available data include information on the area of developmental delay of the established condition identified on the IFSP based on which eligibility is determined, and the school and district codes.

Program Enrollment

The service code variable provides the code for the Individual Education Plan (IEP)-designated program(s), or Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) program(s), in which the student is participating. The Service codes and program codes address the question, “What is being done to address the child’s situation?” and “What services or programs are included in the IFSP or IEP to address the child’s identified needs?”. Note that, the IFSP in Early On or MMSE, and the IEP in Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) programe are the documents that specify why the child is eligible and what services will be provided.

Program participation is not to be confused with the student's type of disability. In general, disability codes address the question, “Why does this child need special services?” or “Based on what criteria was the child found eligible?”. Note that, in the State’s longitudinal data system, Early On ECSE have different names for the fields and different codes and definitions for both Eligibility and Service.

Importantly, the student's program enrollment is not required to match his/her impairment. For example, a student does not have to be diagnosed as early childhood developmentally delayed to participate in an early childhood special education program. Information on the primary agency and the setting in which the services are provided is also available (i.e. school, home, etc.) as are the start of date of the IFSP, start date of service, type of service provided, exit date and the reason for exit are also available.

The implementation of these programs in Michigan is somewhat unique. The Federal IDEA regulations have Part C ages birth-3 and Part B (which includes ECSE) as ages 3-21. Michigan Mandatory Special Education was established prior to the federal law, and provides for services ages birth through 26. To fit both of these together in Michigan, a child may only receive funded services in one of Early On or ECSE at any point in time. Students may receive both Early On and MMSE services, and almost always MMSE students (who have a higher need) will receive Early On services. The only reason they wouldn’t is if parents opt out of Early On to just receive the MMSE services. However, Early On does not only provide services to MMSE eligible services, and Early On does not provide MMSE services. At age 3, the Early On child eligible for MMSE must move to ECSE to receive those services. Between the ages of 30 and 36 months, the family and the service area can decide to move a child from MMSE to ECSE for additional services. The ECSE IEP must be held on or after the Early On Exit Date; otherwise the “special education” services are considered to be MMSE services until the child exits from Early On.

Early On Assessments

Data on three types of assessments are available: Initial IFSP, Early on / MMSE and Early Childhood Special Education.

Initial IFSP

The following information related to the IFSP is available:

• Name of the type of agency that notified the responsible agency the child may potentially be eligible for Early On and/or Early Childhood Special Education services (e.g. physician’s office, childcare worker, family member, etc.)
• The date the lead agency or Education Information System (EIS) provider receives the referral of the child from the responsible agency
• The result of the Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) eligibility determination.
• Whether the IFSP was completed within the required timeline

Early On and MMSE

Child outcomes assessments are required to be completed when the child enters Early On services, annually while the child is receiving services, and upon exit from Early On.

For assessments related to Early On the following information is available: date of the assessment (ASSESSMENT_DATE), the name of the comprehensive assessment tool used when completing the child's assessment (DATA_SOURCE_NAME and ASSESSMENT_TYPE_NAME), and parent input about the child outcomes rating (PARENT_INPUT_NAME).

The following information related to the assessment outcomes is available:

• Child's assessment rating for positive social relationships (SOCIAL_RELATIONSHIPS_NAME).
• Child’s assessment for acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (variable: KNOWLEDGE_SKILLS_NAME).
• Child's assessment rating on the ability to take appropriate actions to meet his/her needs (variable: ACTION_NAME).

In addition to annual and exit assessments, a flag for whether the child showed any new skill or behaviors related to the above three outcomes given the last assessment is also available.

Early Childhood Special Education 
While most of the dataset covers Early On, the ECSE assessment variables are are also present. They include ASSESSMENT_TOOL_NAME/CODE, and the "OUTCOME" suite of variables. The following dates are available: (1) date the child was assessed for entry into the ECSE program and, (2) the date the child was assessed upon their exit from ECSE in the ENTRY_ASSESSMENT_DATE and EXIT_ASSESSMENT_DATE variables, respectively.

Children are assessed on three areas:

• Social Emotional Skills: To what extent the child shows age-appropriate functioning, across a variety of settings and situations (variable: OUTCOME_1A_CODE).
• Acquiring and Using Knowledge and Skills: To what extent the child shows age appropriate functioning, across a variety of settings and situations (variable: OUTCOME_2A_CODE).
• Taking Appropriate Action to meet Needs: To what extent the child shows age appropriate functioning, across a variety of settings and situations (variable: OUTCOME_3A_CODE).

Information on how the child performs on each of these is available. In addition, a flag indicating whether the child has acquired new skills since their last assessment is also available for each of the three areas.