Families

How does monitoring support families?

The Early Intervention Technical Assistance and Monitoring Program supports families by ensuring the Early Intervention Services they receive are being delivered in compliance with applicable policies and procedures, and supports the continuous improvement of these services to ensure the needs of families are being met.
Investing in early childhood education is the single most important education policy decision a government can make, states Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker. Monitoring not only fulfills the state’s legal obligations to ensure adequate oversight, it brings other benefits as well. Monitoring: 
  • helps ensure that expenditures are directed toward fulfilling the EI mission.
  • enhances program fidelity, integrity, and effectiveness—and demonstrates to stakeholders a commitment to such.
  • promotes technical assistance and professional learning to be tailored to programmatic needs identified during monitoring reviews.
  • provides a direct means to communicate with EI providers working throughout the state. 
​Do you wonder if your child’s development is on target for her age? Most delays are nothing to worry about, but in some young children, delays can signal a special need. This guide is written for families with questions about their infant or toddler’s development.
EI Family Guide PDF
​Una guía para familias PDF
Getting Started in Early Intervention

Click here to learn how to get stared in the Illinois Early Intervention Program.

Resources 

Early Intervention
For more information on the State's Early Intervention services please visit the following websites by clicking on their logos below.

Child and Family Connections 

Child and Family Connections (CFC) are the regional intake agencies for children and families to enter the Illinois Early Intervention System. There are 25 CFCs located around the state, each being responsible for a specific geographic area. Here is a list of all CFCs located in the state with their contact information. 
Request for Official Hearing 
Request for Mediation

Family Satisfaction Survey

Principles of Early Intervention

The following principles guide the state's Early Intervention practices. All plans for service delivery are based upon the unique needs of each child/family and focus on the coordination of developmental activities to ensure that all members of the team involved in a child's intervention, including the family and/or caregiver, are working together. 
  1. The primary goal of Early Intervention (EI) is to build caregiver capacity by supporting their ability to promote their child’s optimal development and to facilitate their child’s participation in family and community activities.
  2. The focus of EI is to facilitate the active participation of families in the EI process by engaging caregivers in the planning and implementation of services, including embedding intervention strategies into family life, such as routines, activities and interactions with their child. It is the family/caregivers who provide the real EI by creatively adapting their caregiving methods to facilitate the development of their child, while balancing the needs of the rest of their family.
  3. EI requires a collaborative relationship between families and professionals, with equal participation by all those involved in the process. An on-going, equal family-professional partnership and dialogue is needed to develop, implement, monitor, and modify intervention strategies and services.
  4. Intervention must be linked to specific, Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) goals that are family-centered, culturally relevant, functional, and measurable using culturally and linguistically responsive and affirming practices. Services and intervention strategies should focus on supporting each family’s IFSP outcomes, as well as promoting child and family outcomes that support communication access.
  5. Services and interventions shall be integrated into a comprehensive IFSP that requires families and professionals work together to consistently exchange knowledge and information with each other. It also requires collaborating across disciplines within the broader early childhood system to increase the team’s capacity to jointly solve problems and implement interventions.  The plan shall be built around family strengths, priorities, resources, routines and activities and avoid unnecessary duplication of services. Services and strategies are based upon the best available research, recommended practices in the field and special education laws and regulations.
  6. Services, interventions and progress should be monitored periodically through ongoing observations and discussions with all team members to ensure that the strategies implemented are successful in achieving outcomes.
  7. Ongoing communication and collaboration with EI professionals, family members and professionals in partnering systems outside of EI, who are supporting each family is encouraged. Ongoing communication among all team members allows for coordinated, culturally-relevant and comprehensive services within and across systems to best support families’ priorities, changing circumstances, and transitions.
  8. Children and their families in the EI Program deserve to have services of the highest quality possible. High standards will be set for the training and credentialing of administrative and intervention staff. Training, supervision, and technology will be focused to achieve excellence.
Adopted by the Illinois Interagency Council on Early Intervention (IICEI) October 4, 2001.
Revised 07/2020, Revised 01/2021