|
|
|
|
Contract Update
TEIS posted solicitations for home-based and center-based developmental therapy on Friday, Jan. 25, 2019 on the TEIS website here. The solicitations will result in contracts for services beginning July 1, 2019 through June 30, 2024. The deadline for solicitation submission is 3 p.m. CT, Feb. 25, 2019.
The applications for vendors for physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, assistive technology, etc. are anticipated to be posted in mid to late Feb. 2019. The official announcement will be made on the TEIS website here. Agencies with current contracts will receive an email notifying them of the postings.
|
|
Annual Performance Report (APR) Submitted
TEIS’ APR was submitted to the U.S. Department of Education’s office of special education programs (OSEP) on Feb. 1, 2019. The report was reviewed with TEIS’ state interagency coordinating council (SICC) prior to submission at their meeting on Jan. 29, 2019. The submission will now be reviewed by OSEP. There will be a period of clarification during which OSEP may request additional information. After the period of clarification the final document will be posted to the TEIS website. Reports from the previous two years may be reviewed here.
|
|
New Field in TEIDS to Track IFSP Teaming
The capability to document an individualized family service plan (IFSP) teaming opportunity with a family and another provider was deployed on Jan. 2, 2019 in TEIDS. When a provider visits the family along with another, that visit may now be entered into the system in the newly created IFSP teaming field on the service log screen.
The provider will check the appropriate radio button in the IFSP teaming field if the visit involves an IFSP teaming opportunity. The resulting field will be populated on the related service log line. Definitions of IFSP teaming include:
- Co-visit: an IFSP team member attends a session with another IFSP team member (e.g., early interventionist attends a session with physical therapist)
- IFSP meeting: provider attends an IFSP meeting
- IEP meeting: provider of a service on the child’s IFSP attends an individualized education program (IEP) meeting for children transitioning from TEIS services
Additional considerations for IFSP teaming:
- The visits may be logged as having the same start and ending times as long as the service being delivered is different.
- Early interventionists providing the service of home/community based developmental therapy may attend a transition planning conference. This would be listed as an IFSP meeting, and/or a child’s IEP meeting as a member of the child’s IFSP team.
- Early interventionists providing the service of home/community based developmental therapy may attend up to six sessions, per child per year, of therapeutic service(s) that are listed on a child’s IFSP in the place of a developmental therapy service.
|
|
Everyday Leadership: Redefining Leadership in Lollipop Moments
This article, written by Lisa Terry for the Early Intervention Strategies for Success Blog, shares a video that celebrates the “lollipop” moments in leadership. These are not big, extraordinary events but rather the everyday simple actions of being a leader. These actions may be so small a person may not even recall doing them, but they change lives. Click here to read the article.
|
|
TEIS Launches New "HOPE" for Families
TEIS rolled out a revised process for collecting family outcomes data in Jan. 2019 called Helping Our Parents Excel (HOPE). The goal of this revised process is to improve the reliability and validity of the family outcomes data through:
- increasing the overall response rate of the survey,
- improved representativeness of the respondents, and
- improved dissemination of the data.
TEIS service coordinators received training in Jan. 2019 on the purpose of the family outcomes, survey methodology, part C federal indicator 4: family outcomes, survey instrument reliability and validity measures, and the potential for bias. Data collection for 2018-19 will occur Jan.–June 2019.
The revised process was developed from a 2017 pilot project in which ten service coordinators in three districts collected family survey data via interview. This pilot is described in detail in TEIS’ State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) Phase III, Year 2 report. The new process implemented by TEIS in 2019 builds upon the lessons learned in the pilot, enhances the role of the service coordinator, provides options for families, and prioritizes reporting to provide aggregate caseload reports back to the service coordinator to maximize opportunities for professional development.
|
|
Welcome Aboard
Welcome aboard to our new service coordinators! Mary Patrick joins the southeast office, Lumbria Rochelle King joins the southwest office, and Leigh Hull joins the first Tennessee office.
We’d also like to congratulate Amanda Cooke, who was promoted to program coordinator for the east Tennessee office and Stephanie White of the TEIS fiscal services team who was promoted to the role of accounting technician manager.
|
|
Fiscal Services Team Updates
Reminder: Beginning Jan. 1, 2019, all early intervention resource agency and other contract payments (Tennessee Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, eligibility evaluations, Yahasoft, Vanderbilt-TRIAD, etc.) should be sent to Monica Davis at Monica.Davis@tn.gov and Barbara Bridges at Barbara.Bridges@tn.gov.
|
|
Reminder to Agencies
Contact Robin.Crutcher@tn.gov to have TEIDS access deactivated when staff leave employment.
|
|
Upcoming Dates of Interest
Early Intervention Resource Agency (EIRA) Meeting
April 22, 2019: 1–4 p.m. (CT)
(TBD)
State Interagency Coordinating Council (SICC) Meeting
April 23, 2019: 9 a.m.–12 p.m. (CT)
(TBD)
Any changes to this schedule will be posted on the TEIS website here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
