The Impact of COVID-19 on Illinois Early Intervention Services

Abstract

Purpose: We sought to understand the extent of the nationwide disruption to Part C Early Intervention services due to COVID-19 and the subsequent shift to telehealth, primarily through a focused examination of providers' perspectives on this disruption in a single state, which is Illinois. Method: To examine the impact of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on Early Intervention service provision and implementation, 385 Early Intervention Illinois providers completed a web-based survey. Archival data were used to determine changes in number of Illinois Early Intervention referrals following the pandemic onset and to compare Illinois' telehealth and stay-at-home policies to those of other states. Results: The majority (85%) of Illinois Early Intervention providers reported a disruption in service provision during COVID-19. The number of sessions delivered and the number of children per caseload decreased significantly. Provider confidence also decreased significantly. Only 28% of providers reported high confidence with telehealth. Identified benefits of telehealth included increased accessibility and caregiver involvement, whereas limitations included perceived lack of caregiver buy-in. New Illinois Early Intervention referrals and cases were lower during COVID-19 than in the previous year. Prior to 2020, 33 states did not have a permanent reimbursement policy for providing telehealth Early Intervention services. For states with a suspension of in-person Early Intervention services due to COVID-19, time to approval for telehealth reimbursement varied (0–22 days). Conclusions: The shift to telehealth in Illinois resulted in decreases in service provision and provider confidence across disciplines. However, providers identified some benefits to telehealth. Telehealth may represent a means to increase Early Intervention accessibility following the pandemic. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.19119539

Initial Evaluation Practices to Identify Young Children With Delays and Disabilities During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Nineteen states in the United States suspended early intervention services in the spring of 2020 that likely also included initial evaluations. Our study findings add to the emerging literature base regarding the negative impact of the pandemic on timely initial evaluations in early intervention and preschool special education ( Masterton et al, 2021 ; Roberts et al., 2022 ).…”

“…Professionals also commented on the positive impact of a more efficient initial evaluation, online scoring, and being able to obtain more information and involvement from families. Other pandemic research has found that professionals described providing remote early intervention services as a difficult challenge that also included positive opportunities for increased family engagement ( Roberts et al, 2022 ).…”

“…The percentage of personnel who conducted remote initial evaluations was higher for those conducting initial evaluations for early intervention when compared to evaluations for preschool special education. Many states instituted the approval of early intervention telehealth in the days after the stay-at-home orders in the spring of 2020 ( Roberts et al, 2022 ); this approval may have resulted in more structures and expectations in place for early intervention personnel to utilize remote initial evaluations. In addition to doing more remote initial evaluations, early intervention personnel made more changes to their initial evaluations and were more likely to check in with families about how they were affected by the pandemic.…”

“…Just as the pandemic affected early intervention and special education service delivery, it also affected initial evaluations. First, there were lower than typical referrals to early intervention and preschool and service delays due to suspensions of in-person services, meaning that many young children did not participate in timely initial evaluations ( Masterton et al, 2021 ; Roberts et al, 2022 ). The second way in which the pandemic affected initial evaluations was in how the assessment was carried out with children and families.…”

“…The second way in which the pandemic affected initial evaluations was in how the assessment was carried out with children and families. There is limited information available about how professionals implemented initial evaluations; however, data from one state indicated that early intervention personnel especially struggled to assess children over remote video sessions ( Roberts et al, 2022 ). It is important to understand how personnel conducted initial evaluations with young children during the COVID-19, given the potential impact of public health measures on the initial evaluation process.…”