To report on the percent of infants and toddlers who receive early intervention services primarily in natural environments, MSDE generated a report from the statewide database, which calculated the frequency of services delivered in all settings for all eligible children with IFSPs on 10/1/22. In addition, MSDE reviewed a report of all services that were not provided in natural environments to determine the presence of justifications on IFSPs and to determine whether the justifications for not providing services in the natural environment were based on the needs of the child.

 

In FFY 2022, the State met its target of 97.00%, achieving 98.94% on this indicator. All 24 LITPs achieved the State target of 96.50%. The State’s performance on this indicator decreased slightly over time with Maryland achieving 99.19% in FFY 2021 and 98.94% in FFY 2022.  

 

Achievement of the target, as well as progress on this indicator, was accomplished by requiring LITPs to complete improvement plans, by providing trainings for LITPs which emphasized increasing the inclusion of infants and toddlers with disabilities in community programs and by aligning IFSP decision-making with supports that enhance the provision of services in the natural environment (NE). Another strategy was the statewide promotion of content on the Elevate Maryland website (elevates.marylandpublicschools.org), including tutorials on evaluation/assessment and IFSP development and implementation. These tutorials include lessons on how to incorporate the NE and functional practices in evaluation/assessment and IFSP development and implementation. MSDE provided technical assistance to LITPs on how to write appropriate justifications when services were not provided in natural environments.