DDES INFO MEMO 2006-16

STATE OF WISCONSIN
Department of Health and Family Services 
Division of Disability and Elder Services 
DDES Info Memo Series 2006 - 15
Date: July 31, 2006
Index Title: Birth to 3 Program Data Verification

To: Listserv

For: Area Administrators / Human Services Area Coordinators
County Departments of Community Programs Directors
County Departments of Developmental Disabilities Services Directors
County Departments of Human Services Directors
County Departments of Social Services Directors
Tribal Chairpersons / Human Services Facilitators

From: Sinikka Santala, Administrator DDES

Subject: Birth to 3 Program Indicators for Federal Reporting

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in December 2004 required each state to submit a State Performance Plan (SPP) describing the state's plan for collecting data on the fourteen federally required performance indicators for Part C early intervention programs. Wisconsin's plan is available at http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/bdds/birthto3/spp/index.htm . This is a working document and revisions are made as we learn more about federal requirements.

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has notified the Department of a data verification visit the week of November 6, 2006. This memo addresses the Department's need to verify Birth to 3 data reported on Human Services Reporting System (HSRS), as well as to collect additional information for some of the new federal performance indicators.

In order to provide this verification to the federal reviewers, a statewide random sample of 400 children will be chosen for file review. The sample will include some children who turned three years of age in 2006 to assure that we have enough children with information about transition to the Early Childhood Program. We will choose the sample early in August and expect the file reviews to be conducted in August and September 2006. Most of the file reviews will be done by your regional resource staff person through a scheduled visit. For counties with a large number of files, we will have a team approach to ensure that all files are reviewed in one day. Since this will be a statewide sample, it is likely that some counties will not have any children in this sample.

Attached is the file review checklist that will be used for verification. This checklist shows the data elements which will be reviewed. Counties may wish to use this checklist to complete self assessment file reviews. For the first data elements, we will be comparing the HSRS data report to the information in the file to ensure that the HSRS reporting was accurate.
For the data related to SPP indicators, we will be collecting information that is currently not available on HSRS as well as verifying the information that is on HSRS.

A copy of each file review checklist will be left with the county for your information and an aggregate report showing statewide data on these indicators will be provided when all the reviews have been completed.

REGIONAL OFFICE CONTACT: Area Administrator

CENTRAL OFFICE CONTACT: 
Morgan Groves
DDES/BLTS/CCS
1 W. Wilson St., Room 418
PO Box 7851
Madison, WI 53707-7851
608 267-7844 
grovemp@dhfs.state.wi.us 

MEMO WEB SITE: http://dhfs.wisconsin.gov/dsl_info/ 

Attachment: File Review Checklist (fillable Word document)

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Last Revised: October 24, 2008