Assuring the Family's Role on the Early Intervention Team

This paper is a synthesis of practices and ideas for explaining procedural safeguards to families, which assure that families are fully informed in ways that support their role in the early intervention process. The authors solicited information about practices and ideas for explaining procedural safeguards to families from early childhood projects funded by the Office of Special Education Programs of the U.S. Department of Education and from the state lead agencies for Part C. The paper includes a step-by-step model of explaining procedural safeguards that parallels the early intervention process. The authors intend to explore the implications of procedural safeguards for families, but not to analyze the Part C safeguards themselves. The paper has been developed for state Part C leaders, service providers, families, family advocates, and especially for those people who are involved in explaining procedural safeguards to families.