Empowering Early Childhood Personnel Through Capacity Building: Strengthening Cross-Sector Professional Development Between the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) and Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Issue Brief #3. December 2024

U.S. Department of Education

Introduction

The Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C Program (IDEA Part C) play important roles in supporting families and children from birth to three years of age. Joint professional development between the MIECHV Program and the IDEA Part C Program can support shared expertise and resources across programs and staff, leading to more comprehensive support for infants and toddlers who are at risk for or have developmental delays and their families.

This technical assistance brief provides strategies for joint professional development between MIECHV and Part C program providers. By fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing between these two programs, this brief aims to support programs in enhancing service delivery, improving outcomes for families, and promoting a more integrated early childhood system. The strategies are based on the 2017 ED and HHS Joint Statement on IDEA Part C and MIECHV collaboration.^[1]

Professional Development in MIECHV and Part C

Cross-agency professional development may ensure holistic child development and family support, improved collaboration and coordination, consistency in service delivery, enhanced professional expertise, and better outcomes for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. The IDEA Part C and MIECHV programs include professional development systems and requirements.

Under IDEA Part C, States maintain and implement a statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system, which must include a Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD).^[2]

A States’ IDEA Part C CSPD must:

• Train personnel to implement innovative strategies and activities for the recruitment and retention of early intervention providers;
• Promote the preparation of early intervention providers who are fully and appropriately qualified to provide early intervention services; and
• Train personnel to coordinate transition services for infants and toddlers with disabilities who are transitioning from an early intervention service program under IDEA Part C to a preschool program under IDEA section 619, Head Start, Early Head Start, an elementary school program under IDEA Part B, or another appropriate program.

Additionally, a State’s IDEA Part C CSPD may provide training that the State identifies as a need in personnel development and may include training on social emotional development, meeting the needs of geographically and culturally diverse populations, and how to support families’ full participation in the development and implementation of the child’s individualized family service plan. Additionally, the CSPD may use training standards that are consistent with early learning personnel development standards developed by the State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and Care established under the Head Start Act.

The MIECHV Program requires grantees to provide initial and ongoing training and professional development for staff but does not set specific requirements for what training should entail. MIECHV-funded home visiting sites use different evidence-based models that have been deemed eligible for MIECHV funding, and those models guide the services provided to families. Home visiting models, and sometimes States or jurisdictions, set their own requirements for home visitor training content and participation. Training content varies depending on the expertise needed for a specific home visiting model and the curriculum they use. Topics that may be covered in home visitor training may include child development, how to create trusting relationships with families, ways to support secure parent-child interactions, the use of screening and assessment tools, and model-specific information about program implementation. In addition to initial and ongoing training, the MIECHV Program requires awardees to maintain high-quality supervision to further support staff professional development. Home visiting models vary in their requirements for supervision, including frequency, intensity, and format. HRSA’s Institute for Home Visiting Workforce and Development and Jackie Walorski Center for Evidence-Based Case Management is working to support home visitor professional development across MIECHV-funded home visiting programs.

Strategies to Support Joint Professional Development

Offer joint professional development opportunities.

Explore, partner with, and leverage efforts focused on cross-sector early childhood professional development topics of interest or core competencies. Cover shared topics such as the social emotional development of infants and toddlers, family engagement, and the use of evidence-based practices to improve service delivery. Professional development opportunities may include cross-agency workshops that bring together staff from both MIECHV and IDEA Part C programs. Workshops may include cross-training activities, where MIECHV staff are trained in Part C approaches and vice versa—for example, participating in a short training on each program’s approach to screening and referrals. Workshops may also provide opportunities to discuss ways that staff navigate common, cross-program service delivery experiences, like working with multilingual learners, supporting transitions for families who move outside of a service area, and navigating workforce turnover. States should consider funding requirements of both programs when supporting joint professional development.

Share professional development plans and resources.

Develop and implement shared professional development plans that align the goals and training needs of both MIECHV and IDEA Part C staff. If relevant, establish learning communities or professional learning networks that include staff members from both MIECHV and IDEA Part C.

Share strategies to promote self-care of program staff.

Plan joint opportunities to share self-care strategies for managing stress and preventing burnout in demanding roles. Self-care strategies in the field of early childhood services may also include building resilience and maintaining work-life balance. Programs may also benefit from developing common strategies to promote and develop their use of reflective supervision.

Learn about each other’s roles and responsibilities.

Consider creating mentorship programs where experienced professionals from one program can mentor new staff from the other, fostering cross-program knowledge transfer and professional development.

Address recruitment and retention issues together.

Identify shared strengths or challenges related to workforce recruitment and retention. Keep both programs informed about efforts to recruit new staff. When appropriate, share information about job applicants who may be a stronger fit for either home visiting or early intervention.

State Highlights

Maine’s Child Development Services system (early intervention) and Maine Families access joint professional development opportunities through Brazelton Touchpoints to help providers gain effective strategies to empower families to become active participants through a strengths-based lens within the context of service delivery. For example, one Brazelton Touchpoints Center training opportunity focused on incorporating family engagement practices into providers’ work with families of young children who are new to the country (New Mainers). The training included the IDEA Part C Coordinator, a tenured home visiting provider working with New Mainers, and a cultural broker who was completing practicum experience.

In Rhode Island, MIECHV programs have an Early Intervention staff member present information about IDEA Part C referrals and collaboration during new staff orientation. Similarly, MIECHV representatives present on the program during new employee training for IDEA Part C staff. Biennially, Rhode Island holds a statewide gathering for direct service staff from IDEA Part C and home visiting programs that recognizes the work that they do on behalf of families.

In Virginia, the IDEA Part C program partners with the Early Impact Virginia Alliance for Early Childhood Home Visiting (Early Impact Virginia) program to access home visiting professional development opportunities. Part C program providers and home visiting program providers have collaborated over the years to share professional development activities, including shared supervisor competencies. In addition, IDEA Part C and home visiting program providers often use professional development materials and resources developed by one another. For example, some IDEA Part C providers participate in reflective supervision that was developed and implemented by home visiting providers. In addition, Early Impact Virginia has used some IDEA Part C online training modules, and IDEA Part C program staff invite home visitors to participate in their monthly Talks on Tuesdays webinars.

Conclusion

Cross-agency professional development initiatives at the local level may strengthen the early childhood system and promote holistic support for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families across the continuum of care. Such initiatives may support MIECHV home visitors and IDEA Part C providers to learn about each other’s programs and roles and provide information that may help all early childhood service providers coordinate services for the children and families they serve.

Resources For Support

• Comprehensive System of Personnel Development (CSPD) |
  Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center
• Institute for the Advancement of Family Support Professionals
• Institute for Home Visiting Workforce Development & Jackie Walorski Center for Evidence-Based Case Management | HRSA
• Recruitment and Retention of Personnel Serving Young Children with Disabilities
• Reflective Supervision: A Planning Tool for Home Visiting Supervisors |
  Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• System Framework: Personnel / Workforce | Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center

Disclaimer

Other than statutory and regulatory requirements included in the document, the contents of this document do not have the force or effect of law and are not meant to bind the public. This document is intended only to provide clarity to the public regarding existing requirements under the law or agency policies. This document is intended as a resource on identifying, locating, and evaluating infants and toddlers for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part C services. Further, this document does not provide specific guidance on Federal disability laws.

This document contains resources and examples that are provided for the user’s convenience. The inclusion of these materials is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse any views expressed, or products or services offered. These materials may contain the views and recommendations of various subject-matter experts as well as hypertext links, contact addresses and websites to information created and maintained by other public and private organizations. The opinions expressed in any of these materials do not necessarily reflect the positions or policies of the U.S. Departments of Education or Health and Human Services. The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services do not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of any outside information included in these materials. For the reader’s convenience, this document contains examples of potentially useful products and resources. Inclusion of such information does not constitute an endorsement by the Departments of Education or Health and Human Services or the Federal government, nor a preference/support for these examples as compared with others that might be available and be presented.

Footnotes

[1] The joint statement was developed by The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and the Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB) in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

[2] See 34 CFR 303.100, 303.110, 34 CFR 303.118.