Key Elements of Early Transition (KEET): A Guide for Planning, Implementing, and Evaluating Smooth and Effective Transitions for Children and their Families from Local Early Childhood Intervention Programs to Local Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities
The purpose of the KEET Guide is to provide guidance in the building of relationships between local Early Childhood Intervention programs and Local Educational Agencies as they work together to develop, maintain, evaluate, and refine their collaborative systems for the smooth transition of children and their families who leave Early Childhood Intervention services and enter public school services. As feedback is consistently elicited and reviewed, the systems and programs that facilitate early transition continuously improve to meet the individual needs of the children, families, and staff.
The KEET Guide provides a checklist of the key elements of early transition for children who leave Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) services and enter the public school Preschool Program for Children with Disabilities (PPCD). The key elements of early transition are color-coded with blue and the symbol [R] indicating required elements and green with the symbol [S] indicating suggested elements.
In the KEET Guide, the elements are listed in chronological order and each is accompanied by its corresponding reference(s) in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) 2004, the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) for IDEA 2004, the Texas Administrative Code (TAC), ECI Policy, the TEA/DARS-ECI Early Transition Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), the State Performance Plan (SPP), and/or the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) Texas Monitoring Report. Websites for accessing the references are listed at the end of the document as are the acronyms that are used in the document. The KEET Checklist contains all the elements without the corresponding references so it can serve as a shorter reference document.
Key Elements of Early Transition Guide | Key Elements of Early Transition Checklist
State Guidance Resources
View/Download Adobe Acrobat PDF of Beyond ECI: English version | Spanish version
View/Download Adobe Acrobat PDF of Early Transition MOU
State and National Resources
National
Early Childhood Transition Initiative
The initiative supports states' capacity to address transition issues, implement
improvement activities, and demonstrate progress in meeting the requirements
in the State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report indicator 12.
Department
of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, Division for Early Childhood Intervention
(ECI) Services
The ECI serves Texas families who have babies and toddlers with disabilities
or developmental delays. A statewide listing of ECI
Programs listed by county is available from ECI.
Early Childhood
Outcomes (ECO) Center
The ECO Center seeks to promote the development and implementation of child
and family outcome measures for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with disabilities.
These measures can be used in local, state, and national accountability systems..
Early Head Start National Resource Center (EHS NRC)
The EHS NRC provides training and technical assistance to Head Start's new Early Head Start program, which supports the healthy development of infants, toddlers, and their families, and pregnant women. The EHS NRC is operated by ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers and Families and WestEd's Center for Child and Family Studies.
Head Start
Head Start is a child development program that has served low-income children and their families since 1965. The Head Start Bureau maintains this web site as an electronic resource for Head Start service providers, parents, volunteers, community organizations, and others who share an interest in helping children look forward to a brighter future.
National Early Childhood
Technical Assistance Center (NECTAC)
The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center supports the implementation
of the early childhood provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA). Our mission is to strengthen service systems to ensure that children
with disabilities (birth through five) and their families receive and benefit
from high quality, culturally appropriate, and family-centered supports and
services.
Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS)
The DFPS Child-Care Licensing Division is responsible for protecting the health, safety, and well being of children who attend or reside in regulated child-care facilities and homes.
Education Service Centers
For technical assistance and training in regard to assessing students
with disabilities and other aspects of the provision of services for students
with disabilities, contact your regional
education service center.
The Legal Framework for the Child-Centered Special Education
Process
The Legal Framework is a template in an electronic format that summarizes
state and federal requirements for special education by topic for parents and
educators. A framework addressing Early
Childhood Transition has been developed.
Texas Education Agency | Division of IDEA Coordination
1701 North Congress Avenue | Austin, Texas 78701-1494
Telephone: 512.463.9414 | Fax: 512.463.9560
Last Updated: August 18, 2010 | Created: January 8, 2008
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