What to Expect

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Referral/Intake: 

PIC receives referrals from many different places, but parents and pediatrician/physicians are our top two referral sources.  Parents can make a referral when they are concerned about their child’s development.  PIC also receives referrals from childcare providers, hospitals, and child protective services or OCS.  

When a referral is received, PIC will contact the parent within a few days, often the same day, to gather some information and prepare for a direct service provider to contact the parent to arrange an intake visit.  During the intake visit, the provider will learn about your concerns and priorities for your child.  You will also review necessary paperwork and sign documents so that PIC providers can schedule an evaluation.  

Evaluation:

PIC evaluations are comprehensive and evaluate all areas of a child’s development.  Including:

  • Gross motor-how a child moves like crawling and walking
  • Fine motor-how a child uses their hands
  • Communication-how a child understands and uses language
  • Cognition-how a child thinks and solves problems
  • Self Help-how a child gets their needs met (eating, dressing)
  • Social emotional development-how a child engages with others and behavior
  • Vision and hearing-is your child seeing and hearing well

The evaluation is completed by two different disciplines or specialists.  This is your evaluation team, and they will work with you to determine the skills your child is doing well and those that are not yet mastered and still developing.  

You will receive a full report of the evaluation and your provider will go over the results and make appropriate recommendations.  

Eligibility for Part C

The evaluation gives us a lot of information about your child’s strengths and also challenges meeting their developmental milestones.  Your provider will review the results of the evaluation with you and use that evaluation and the information you have shared to determine if your child is eligible for services at PIC. 

To be eligible for PIC services, a child must demonstrate a significant delay in his or her development.  A 50% delay is required to qualify on test scores alone.  That means a child who is 24 months old has skills in one or more areas of development that look more like a child who is 12 months old.  However, a child may also qualify if they have a diagnosis that is likely to result in a developmental delay as they grow.  An example is a child who has been diagnosed with Down Syndrome.  As an infant, they may not yet be showing significant delays but as they grow older, we know that children with Down Syndrome have delayed development due to that diagnosis.  

If your child is not eligible for PIC service but does have delays that would benefit from therapy, your provider will share with you a list of providers in the community who can help your child gain the skills they need.  

Enrolling in Services at PIC: Create an IFSP

If your child is eligible for services at PIC and you decide to enroll in services, you and your provider will create an Individualized Family Service Plan or IFSP.  The IFSP is a written document that pulls together all the information gathered during intake and evaluation.  The IFSP is a legal document that is required when enrolling for services.  The information included in the IFSP includes:

  • Current level of functioning
  • Goals to be addressed during visits
  • Services 
    • Types-Service Coordination, Therapy (Developmental, Physical, Occupational, Speech, and Social Work)
    • Frequency-how often services will happen
    • Where services will be delivered-most services happen in families’ homes
  • Your consent to provide services. Parents must sign and agree to the services listed on the IFSP before any services can begin. 

The IFSP will be in effect for no more than 1 year.  During that year, it can be reviewed and revised as many times as is needed but required to be reviewed as least every 6 months.  Parents can request a review or revision at any time.  Your provider will let you know when the IFSP will need to be reviewed.  However, often the IFSP is reviewed more frequently to update the goals for your child as they gain new skills and priorities may change.  

Transitions from Part C services at PIC to Part B Services with the Local School District or other community services

PIC services end when a child turns three years old. PIC will prepare both parents and children for the transition starting when your child is 24 to 30 months old.  Our goal is to have all new services in place before your child turns 3.  

Transition includes three important steps:

  1. Notification-PIC will notify the school district that your child may be eligible for school district services when he or she turns three.  Parents have the right to opt out of this notification by signing a form that your provider will discuss with you.  If you don’t want your contact information to be shared with the school district, you must sign the opt out form before your child turns 29 months old.  
  2. Transition Plan-Your PIC provider will review the general timeline and steps for transition out of PIC services.  This plan must be completed by the time your child turns 30 months old.  This is the beginning of exploring all the different options that may be available to your child.  Options include school district preschool programs, head start programs, private therapy, private childcare and others.  Together you and your provider will explore which options may be appropriate for your child.
  3. Transition Conference/90 Day Conference-This is the formal meeting between parents, PIC providers, and in most cases the school district.  During this meeting, specific details will be worked out like when and where your child will receive their evaluation to determine eligibility and appropriate preschool placement options.  In addition, if parents have any questions about important matters such as riding the bus, or how the school your child would be attending is selected.  This is a very important meeting for you and your child.  Parents can invite anyone they wish to this meeting.  At the very least, the parent and the PIC provider must attend.  

Raintree Electronic Health Record

PIC uses an electronic health record to keep all our client’s health information.  It is important to us to ensure all client information is secure and families have access to the documents they need.  PIC uses Raintree for all our client records.  Parents will be able to sign documents online and will receive emails from PIC to access documents when they are ready.   If you are having difficulty with this process, PIC staff can assist you through the process.  If you prefer paper documents, PIC will provide these to you upon request.  

If there is a problem/file a complaint—What to do

PIC and all our providers work in close partnership with families to provide high quality interventions and services.  However, we understand that despite our best efforts, problems may happen.  PIC is committed to resolving any problem so that families can focus on helping their children.  Parents are encouraged to contact the PIC office if you are not happy with any aspect of your child’s or family’s services.   PIC will work to understand the difficulty and seek a solution.  If a solution can is not reached, PIC will connect parents to officials at the EI/ILP state office to make a formal complaint and seek resolution through mediation or other means.  Please see the conflict resolution section of the Parent Rights and Procedural Safeguard booklet.  For convenience the link is here: Alaska Early Intervention/Infant Learning Program Parent Rights and Procedural Safeguards