The Alliance for Early Success and ZERO TO THREE have launched a new opportunity for state advocates, a Part C Early Intervention (EI) Advocacy collaboration community. In this peer community, advocates regularly connect and reflect with other advocates working in this critical state policy area. The goal of the community is to advance change through sharing information, ideas, and strategies with one another.
State legislative sessions in 2024 included activity on increasing budget amounts for Part C EI, raising reimbursement rates for Part C EI providers, educating legislators on important EI issues, working with state agencies to access data on children receiving Part C EI services to improve service delivery, and much more. This forum for collaboration will help advocates build on those advances.
States operate their own EI programs in compliance with federal law but have flexibility in policy areas such as eligibility criteria, financing, and collaboration efforts with other state agencies. Peer advocates in this community are working to identifying opportunities for impact in their state’s EI systems. In early gatherings, they laid out their hopes to:
- Explore issues in EI such as eligibility definitions, workforce supports, transitions to special education, and others.
- Ensure inclusion across early childhood programs.
- Support family voice in EI advocacy.
- Gain a greater understanding of the national picture of EI issues.
- Increase knowledge of EI funding.
The community launched in January of 2025 with 27 advocates from 21 states . The group will continue to meet through September 2025.
During the kick-off, a parent consultant who is part of the ZERO TO THREE facilitation team centered the importance of understanding the experiences of families in policy and advocacy work by describing her journey to leadership first on behalf of her son, then expanding to many more families in her community. Advocates embraced establishing connections with one another and especially appreciated the perspective of other parent advocates in the group.
In addition to the calls, participants have access to an online platform with archived resources and a message board to keep connection going between meetings.
