Who Are the Early Intervention Professional Staff and Why Are They Leaving A Job They Love?

The Early Intervention Specialists that provide specific therapies and direct services to children and their families are the heart of the Early Intervention system.

The EI team of professionals include:

Developmental Specialists

Speech Pathologists

Occupational Therapists

Physical Therapists

Registered Nurses

Social Workers

Psychologists

Mental Health Counselors

EI staff are highly qualified specialists who are licensed and certified to provide services to children age birth-to-three. Their outstanding education, training and dedication to children and their families is the reason that Early Intervention is such a high quality service. EI professionals make a profound difference everyday in a child's life and future development.

Parents have called their EI professionals: miracle workers; pillars of support and shining stars. Here is what one parent had to say about the EI team that served his son:

" I don't have enough paper to express how much they helped our family. The best way I can sum it up is to state that they are the guardians of human dignity; they perform quiet miracles by helping children regain their independence." Harry Tembenis, EI Parent

Why Are They Leaving EI?

They simply cannot afford to stay in EI and live in Massachusetts. The rates set by the state for EI are so low that salaries and benefits are 25 - 35 percent below the US Average Dept. of Labor salaries, for Massachusetts. The salary disparity is so great that EI is at a complete disadvantage. EI programs cannot compete with school systems and hospitals that recruit EI therapists and offer $10,000+ more per year.

The Mass. EI Consortium conducted an exit survey of staff leaving EI and the top two reasons why staff left EI were: Better Salary and Improved Benefits. Here are some of the additional comments provided by the staff leaving EI for other opportunities:

"The program was a wonderful place to work at; great support; wonderful teams; the only drawback was the low salary and high cost of maintaining a car." (EI is home visiting model and staff travel considerably to serve children and families).

"The salary is the only downside of EI."

"Average OT salary is greater than $10,000 more a year outside of EI in the state of Massachusetts."

"My salary increased by $10,000 when I went to work in the schools (from my last full-time EI salary) and I am able to stay home with my children for the summer."

"Very satisfied with the job and type of work; felt I had great influence and loved working with children and families - I just couldn't afford to do it anymore. I accepted another position because it paid $10,000 more than what I was making at EI...I also get a 4% raise annually. If I could have gotten these benefits at EI I would have definitely stayed."

We know why EI Staff are leaving and we cannot serve the children in need of services without them.

Support a Rate Increase for Early Intervention Staff. It is time to break down the wage barrier that is forcing these dedicated professionals to leave EI. It is time to invest in and compensate EI staff for all they do for children and families.