Engaging Communities in Analyzing Data for Child Find Improvements

By Howard Morrison, Margaret C. Gillis, and Mary Lee Porterfield

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that Part C early intervention (EI) programs serve infants and toddlers with identified disabilities or delays and their families. Yet EI programs often struggle to connect with potentially eligible families and lack community input on analysis and interpretation of data to understand how to improve outreach.

Child Find ACCESS is an evidence-based model that local EI programs can use to address these issues. It provides a roadmap that helps local EI program leaders work with families and other key partners (through a leadership team) to identify needs and design solutions that improve family access to and uptake of EI services.

Why Community Perspectives Matter in Child Find Data

Data alone can’t tell the full story of how families experience child find. Child find refers to the process of identifying a concern with a child, referring them to EI, evaluating eligibility, and enrolling them in EI services. Community members experience the child find system from different perspectives, and they provide the context needed to understand why patterns in data exist and how systems can improve.

Through the Child Find ACCESS model, local leadership teams of EI program staff, families, and cross-sector partners (such as healthcare, early care and education, and social services) work together to interpret data, identify root causes of challenges, and co-develop solutions. These perspectives help programs:

• Identify gaps in who is (and is not) being reached
• Understand factors that contribute to the timing of and communication about referrals
• Understand barriers families face in referral, evaluation, and enrollment
• Build trust and strengthen relationships with communities
• Ensure strategies are responsive to local needs and priorities

For state Part C programs, this work highlights the importance of creating infrastructure, guidance, and data access that enable meaningful local engagement. For local EI programs, it reinforces the value of partnering directly with families and community providers in ongoing data use and decision-making.

What Data Support Child Find Improvement

Common data sources include:

• State and local administrative data — data on referrals, evaluations, eligibility, enrollment, and trends over time for program improvement
• Child find self-assessments — structured reflection tools that help teams assess current practices, identify strengths, and prioritize areas for improvement
• Family perspectives — insights from families who did and did not access EI services that highlight real-world experiences navigating the system (gathered, for example, through interviews and focus groups)
• Partner surveys — surveys that provide information on awareness of the EI program, screening practices, and referral behaviors among key child find partners (such as healthcare and early childhood providers)

While these sources are common starting points, state and local programs should determine which data are most meaningful for their contexts and populations.

How Administrative Data Can Help Identify Opportunities

Administrative data are critical for understanding how children move through the child find system. For example, local leadership teams may examine trends in:

• Referral sources (such as physicians and families)
• Timeliness of follow-up and evaluation
• Eligibility and enrollment rates
• Outcomes such as Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) development

The table below shows one way teams may look at their data. In this example, the team examined year-to-year changes in referral outcomes by referral source, focusing on the two most common sources: physicians and families.

* Negative percentages in this column represent positive changes in reference to children being successfully evaluated and enrolled in the EI program.

Looking at these data, community teams might ask:

• Why are IFSP rates increasing across referral sources?
• What contributed to the decrease in unsuccessful contact attempts for physician referrals?
• Why are more families who self-refer declining services?

These questions cannot be answered by data alone. Engaging families and community partners is essential to uncover the underlying reasons and identify appropriate responses.

How to Turn Data into Action

Once teams have reviewed and discussed their data, the next step is to move from analysis to action. This process includes:

1. Exploring root causes using community perspectives
2. Identifying opportunities for improvement based on data patterns
3. Co-developing improvement strategies with community partners
4. Implementing strategies and monitoring changes over time

For example, a team might identify a need to:

• Strengthen outreach and communication with families
• Provide training to referral partners on screening and referral practices
• Support referral partners in understanding the eligibility criteria and how EI can support children and families

State Part C programs play a key role in supporting this work by:

• Ensuring local programs have access to timely, high-quality data
• Facilitating data sharing across systems where appropriate
• Providing guidance and technical assistance to local EI programs related to the data and child find practices
• Supporting shared learning across communities

Learn More

Access more resources related to Child Find ACCESS on our Resources Page.

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About the Authors