A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

Chapter 306

I. Program Profile

Purpose: The purpose of the Early Childhood Education program is to improve special education and early intervention services for infants, toddlers, and children with disabilities, from birth through age eight. The program develops new knowledge in the field of early childhood education, supports development and testing of interventions, and disseminates broadly the information gained to help program managers and teachers improve their programs and services. Types of activities funded include: research, development, outreach, demonstration, training, technical assistance, and dissemination. Awards are made to public and private agencies and organizations, typically for three to five years.

Funding History

II. Program Information and Analysis

Services

• Five research institutes:
  1. longitudinal studies of the effects and costs of early intervention (Utah State University);
     
  2. identification of factors affecting the provision of community services to infants and toddlers and their families under the Part H program (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill);
     
  3. development and field-testing of intervention strategies to improve the integration of handicapped children into regular preschool, childcare, prekindergarten, and kindergarten programs (Allegheny-Singer Research Institute);
     
  4. development of new or improved organizational structures for the identification, referral, and intervention process (Children's Hospital Corporation, Boston, MA); and
     
  5. development and evaluation of intervention strategies for children who were neonatally exposed to drugs and children who were born with fetal alcohol syndrome (University of Kansas).

• Three directed research studies of the effects of language, motor, or social skills interventions.

• Four experimental projects investigating alternative interventions and approaches.

• Sixty-three demonstration projects in five areas:
  1. innovative inservice training programs for personnel serving infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children with disabilities;
     
  2. integrated preschool services;
     
  3. methodology for serving infants and toddlers with specific disabilities;
     
  4. field-initiated model demonstrations in early childhood education; and
     
  5. tracking systems for at-risk children.

• Forty-seven outreach/dissemination projects with documented model programs for dissemination and replication in other sites. These projects transfer the findings of research and model demonstration activities into the service delivery system.

• Twenty-nine inservice training projects. These projects are designed to train college and university faculty members who are training personnel currently providing early intervention services.

• Technical assistance. A national early childhood technical assistance project is funded at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is designed to:
  1. help State agencies develop and implement plans for delivering services to children with disabilities from birth through age five;
     
  2. provide community agencies with help to develop the capacity to provide high quality services;
     
  3. facilitate the exchange of research and "best-practice" information; and
     
  4. help discretionary projects achieve their objectives and link them with States requesting new models and materials.

Program Administration

III. Sources of Information

1. Fifteenth Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education, 1993).

IV. Planned Studies

V. Contacts for Further Information

Program Operations:

Jim Hamilton, (202) 205-9084

Program Studies:

Nancy Rhett, (202) 401-3630

[Services for Children with Deaf-Blindness]

[Program for Children with Severe Disabilities]