Sustaining Family Involvement in Part C Policy and Services Successes and Challenges Moving Forward

The passage of the Education of the Handicapped Act (1986) mandated educational services for children with disabilities starting at age 3 years. It also included language promoting the implementation of an entirely new program under Part H of the Act, in which states that chose to participate would be eligible to receive federal funding and technical support to develop a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, statewide system of early intervention (EI) services to infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families. While some, albeit relatively few, states were already providing educational services to infants and toddlers with disabilities, Part H established the conditions (a) that these services be family-focused, (b) that states provide service coordination supports to families, (c) that states actively promote interagency collaboration among stakeholder state and local agencies, (d) that EI programs focus efforts on identifying all eligible children, and (e) that states establish State Interagency Coordinating Councils (ICCs) to oversee the implementation of these programs and to actively pursue the amelioration of systemic gaps and barriers to program implementation. Part H also included the unique requirement of parent participation in the implementation and oversight of these programs meaning that parent involvement was required in the new system. The state ICCs were required to include state agency stakeholders in their membership. In addition, at least 20% of the ICC membership was to consist of parents with young children with disabilities. While innovative, family involvement in the disability field in the United States had been key in advancing significant change to the field in the latter half of the twentieth century. disabilities. In partnership with other members of his family, President Kennedy established the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation, the first national group to study disability in the United States. The Panel initiated a call to action to increase research, review public policy, and enhance the quality of practice regarding the care and support of individuals with disabilities. As a result, a national deinstitutionalization movement was launched.