Massachusetts Early Intervention Consortium

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September 2003 Minutes

ITA Minutes
September 19, 2003

Board Members: Linda Schaeffer, Jo-Ann Otlin, Sandy Levine, Linda Edwards, Jean Graney, Dawn LaPointe, Candace Chang, Dan Couet, Lorraine Sanik, Jimmilee Prouty, Tom Miller, Zulmira Allcock, Amy Miner-Fletcher, Rhonda Meisel, Anne Halstead, Alex Chatfield, Joanne Sweeney, Robin Weber Present: Linda Schaeffer, Jo-Ann Otlin, Linda Edwards, Jean Graney, Candace Chang, Dan Couet, Lorraine Sanik, Jimmilee Prouty, Tom Miller, Zulmira Allcock, Amy Miner-Fletcher, Rhonda Meisel, Anne Halstead, Alex Chatfield, Joanne Sweeney, Robin Weber, MaryAnn Mulligan, Miriam Lasher

The ITA Meeting opened at 10:55 AM

Treasurer's Report:

· Reviewed current account balances.

Legislative Report:

· Discussed presentation by Christine Fergesun at the Caplan Forum on Early Childhood Policy.

· www.mass.gov: Website has explanation of EI linked on the home page

· Discussion of plans for legislative reception: discussion of pros/cons of large event versus meeting with legislators separately. Discussion tabled until November meeting.

Old Business: None

New Business: None

MSV to close the meeting at 12:05.

Minutes: MSV Approved minutes

Respectfully Submitted,

Anne Halstead,

Board Secretary

MASSACHUSETTS EARLY INTERVENTION CONSORTIUM

Infant/Toddler Advocates
Linda Schaeffer-President
Jo-Ann Otlin-President Elect

The Consortium Meeting was opened at 9:45 am and re-opened at 12:05.

Consortium Minutes
Sept. 19, 2003

Board Members: Linda Schaeffer, Jo-Ann Otlin, Sandy Levine, Linda Edwards, Jean Graney, Dawn LaPointe, Candace Chang, Dan Couet, Lorraine Sanik, Jimmilee Prouty, Tom Miller, Zulmira Allcock, Amy Miner-Fletcher, Rhonda Meisel, Anne Halstead, Alex Chatfield, Joanne Sweeney, Robin Weber, Barbara Hrezueg
Present: Linda Schaeffer, Jo-Ann Otlin, Linda Edwards, Jean Graney, Candace Chang, Dan Couet, Lorraine Sanik, Jimmilee Prouty, Tom Miller, Zulmira Allcock, Amy Miner-Fletcher, Rhonda Meisel, Anne Halstead, Alex Chatfield, Joanne Sweeney, Robin Weber, MaryAnn Mulligan, Bob Littleton, Miriam Lasher

Treasurer's Report:

· Reviewed current account balances.
· Reminder of funds available to each region this fiscal year for training. Requests for funds should be made through the appropriate regional specialists.

Regional Reports:

Region I:

Region I held their first meeting of the new fiscal year on Tuesday, September 9 at REACH Program, Northampton. Meeting for this year will be held the fourth Tuesday of every month at REACH in Northampton.
Discussions:
1. Collection of fees and related issues. Most programs sent bills to families currently registered and others decided to do send invoices as families entered or renewed their IFSP.
2. Scoring the Michigan and various issues related. Darlene Corbett, a member of the planning committee for the DPH Director's Meeting, solicited thoughts and ideas to bring to the committee.
3. Concern was expressed that the DPH Director's Meeting and the MEIC Director's Forum were scheduled for the same week. Also, could the start time of meetings be a little later as it takes the Berkshire programs 2 hours to get to the meetings.
4.The money available from the Consortium for a local conference is greatly appreciated. We will begin planning our spring local conference for staff at our next meeting.
Karen Cassidy came to the meeting to discuss WRCP funds available to the region.
Next Meeting: October 28 at 2:00 pm The REACH Program, Northampton

Region II:

Region II Meeting Aug. 22, 2003
Group discussed the posted job description for the early intervention certification director role.
Concerns included: No specification of early intervention experience as a job requirement; Description of possible relationships with providers as "hostile"; No specifics regarding the level of education the position needed.
Region II requests that MEIC address this with DPH.
Information was shared that it is likely that the federal government will require all children ages 0-3 in DSS custody to be evaluated by EI. Agencies participating in pilot programs have found the number of referrals to be increasing.
Peer support and resource sharing.
Nancy Philips has not yet heard from Darla G. re ICC membership. Robin had emailed Darla with a request to follow up with Nancy. Nancy will contact her directly.
Reviewed up and coming dates and meetings.
Next meeting Oct. 31, 2003

Region III:

Setting up Infant/Toddler Training by Jean Nigro for staff in the region. There will be two sessions; an afternoon and evening sessions.

Region IV &Regions VI:

Discussed the current training by Jean Nigro about Infant/toddler Development Training
Discussed certification and initial screening process for portfolios.

Region V:

Katee Duffy started meeting off with updates on upcoming events.
· September 24th - Insurance workshop
· Oct. 10th - Hausslein Award applications due
· Oct. 15th - Annual Director's Training - Holiday Inn, Worcester

SE Conference update:
· Save the date flyer went out for October 30th
· Draft of brochure will be emailed /faxed by end of week to begin to show staff workshops
· Deadline to register for conference will be Oct. 10th
· Keynote will be Celeste Warner : The Difference Between Creating A Life and Making a Living
· Other workshops include -
Is it sensory or is it Behavior?
- Stress- Coping for us and the families we work with
- Feeding Disorders
- Violence in the Workplace
- Working with Difficult Families
- Cultural Diversity
Consortium update
ICC update:
SE Region needs a parent rep for ICC

Membership Committee:

· Membership packets continue to be received. As information is processed, secretary will contact members without email to double check availability of email for communication purposes.

Newsletter:

· Discussion of new website. Suggestions and comments were offered. ·
Newsletter will continue to be printed in a limited number. Newsletter information will be sent to Robin Weber to be added to the website.

Conference Committee:

· Discussion that Serena Weider is interested in participing in the conference and needs more details.
· Request for date and time that Christine Fergesun will be invited to participate in the conference.

Nominating Committee:

ICC Report:

.ICC will be refocused with a 3-year strategic plan versus annual charge as outcomes have to be tied to research based practice.
. Retreat will moved from June to September and be held for 2 days Next ICC dates are: 11/13/03; 1/8/04; 3/11/04; 5/6/04; 6/3/04; retreat will be September 22 and 23 2004

. Ron's report:
. Highlighted an article in Newsweek that looks at Autism and gender, and another article in Zero to Three titled: Parents keep our eyes on the Prize" That has input from Patti Fougere and Katherine Thomas
. Mass.gov has Early Childhood programs listed and EI is listed
. Budget issues continue: DPH has begun to be asked to project FY05 #'s. There was a 10% growth in FY'03. Anticipate that 12 ½ % of the children under 3 in MA would be served
. 2 billion dollars was added in IDEA's Part B by Senator Harkin. We need to continue to focus on attention on increasing $in Part C. Ron urged calls to Senators and Reps on a Federal level to support increasing funding. It was recommended that Steering send out bulleted information to the EI community so that we could advocate federally

· Committee Reports:
. Standards: continuing to look at co-treatments, benefit in training staff and supervision model
.Personnel Prep: Working on 1) Multiple Pathways to Certification, 2) Staff Recruitment brochure (with Program Planning), 3) Further identification of options for financial support (i.e. loan forgiveness, etc.) 4) Alternative ways to list EI in phone books. Karin Lifter has resigned from Chairperson of this committee…looking for a chair. Judy Sleeper will be reporting information until new chair has been appointed. Anyone interested please email Judy at jsleeper@thomchild.org. Program Planning: If anyone did not receive the IFSP guidance document, there is a hard copy of www.state.ma.us\dph\fch\ei\ifspguidance.pdf; continuing to work on IFSP brochure. Also looking at developing a Universal Parent Handbook welcoming families into EI. Karin Lifter also announced that Northeastern would be working on research related to outcomes. It was suggested that someone from the Best Practice Group from MEIC could also be on the Personnel Prep to be connected to the research.
. Low Incidence: completing Puzzling Behavior brochure.
. Fiscal; Reminder of Insurance Training meeting on Wed. 9/24/03 8:30-3:30 at the Holiday Inn in Worcester. Billing Regs will be coming out
. Membership: They will be doing New Member Orientations on a regular basis before every ICC meeting if needed. VACANCIES: Parent Rep in SE and West; Greater Boston Provider; Head Start.
. Brainstorming Session: Each member wrote down what were the hot topics they felt in EI. These were then prioritized and number beside top 6 top topics are the number of times a the topic received a priority vote:
Fiscal: 32; Resources and Partnerships(includes transitions) 24; Recruitment and Retention: 15; Certification: 11; Family Involvement: 9; Systems issues: 5. Due to the high priority given Fiscal Concerns, a subcommittee will be developed to look at fiscal concerns. The hope it to have a connection with MEIC (maybe a MEIC member could be on this committee)., focusing on who does EI want parity with, and what is the ICC role in advocacy?
· Announcements: 6 Regional Early Childhood Network Meetings are being planned for FY'04. The RSVP registration date was September 16, 2003, but you can email Terri Heffernan to see if you can still attend: theffernan@doe.mass.edu

Strategic Planning/FISG: See New Business

Fiscal Meeting:

· FY02 payments will be completed. FY03 supplementals are larger than expected.
· FY04 has shown an increase in children eligible by clinical judgment. Increases in services are concerning to the DPH.
· Exploring the option of having specialty service providers paid by DMA.
· Possibility of exploring increases in insurance cap was discussed.
· Although child count is up, service delivery numbers are stable or down.

Insurance Meeting:

· Upcoming insurance meeting on September 25, 2003
· If you need assistance with choosing diagnosis codes, please do not use insurance companies as a resource.
· United Health Care Contracts will be distributed at the Insurance Forum. Blue Cross/Blue Shield will not require new contracts.

Committee Reports:

Supervision:
· Dan Couet distributed a proposed model of Certification through Supervision in Early Intervention.
o Suggestions and questions included: length of certification process, number of individual hours, definition of peer review meetings, would this be an entry-level option/possibility of multiple pathways for certification.
o Suggestion to include this model at director's forum and regional meetings for feedback
Best Practice:
No Report
Legislative:No Report

Old Business:

New Business:

FISG: Presentation by FISG of "Massachusetts Early Intervention Analysis of Financial Operations: FY2001/2002 Comparisons" Discussion of next steps for Board and new charge for Strategic Planning/FISG in addressing the data presented. Charge to FISG: Identify questions and possible fiscal issues to facilitate discussion by executive directors and directors at Town Meeting.

Plan:
1. Meet with DPH to present data numbers,
2. Ask Strategic Planning/FISG to develop questions for Town Meeting in November
3. Questions, concerns, ideas, suggestions should be sent to member of FISG
4. Utilize Town Meeting with directors and executive directors to discuss possible causes of program deficits

Meeting with Patti Fougere and Katharine Thomas to discuss role of regional specialists.

· Written information was distributed to board members outlining role and responsibilities of regional specialists.
· Spoke of the DPH's efforts to ensure consistency of expectations by regional specialists and job description despite short-staffing. Lack of staff often requires other DPH staff to cover duties that may not be typically their job.
· Program recertification has been changed to accommodate staffing by utilizing a Focus Certification model.
· Discussion of DPH's strategies or protocols to ensure consistency of information sharing and/or decision making across the state.
· Plans to streamline reporting of contract performance standards by the DPH to report back to programs in a timely manner. New contract performance standards will be discussed at October 15th Director's training.
· Request that programs be alerted of schedule for certification visits when the master schedule is made at the DPH.
· Discussion of the purpose/use of annual reports. This data is used as a quality check for regional specialists for data (including personnel data, certification status, etc.). Katharine is hoping to create a central database of personnel data to allow for better cross checking and quality control.
· Question regarding status of hiring for new certification coordinator. Interviewing is in process and Katharine is hoping to hire before the end of September. Both education level and experience will considered throughout the process.
· Discussion of strategies to facilitate communication with regional specialists in each region in regards to best practice in early childhood initiatives.
· Discussion regarding ability of regional specialists to share information regarding practice within a region or statewide on a less formal basis. Should regional specialists be available as a resource to programs around current or best practice? This is meant to be a role for the regional specialists.
· Discussion of what is the most appropriate way to share feedback regarding regional specialist's performance. Information can be shared with the regional specialist during re-certification or providers can contact Patti Fougere. Request to utilize a more formal manner of reporting performance. Katharine and Patti shared that their personnel review system is state mandated and does not include this type of feedback.

2nd Director's Forum:

· Discussion of date change from October 17th to November 6th if possible.
MSV to adjourn at 10:55am pm.

Minutes: MSV approved

Respectfully Submitted,
Anne Halstead,
Board Secretary