Legal Requirements
for the IFSP
Glossary of Terms
Protection and Safety
Central Register: The Central Register is a list of individuals identified as having been responsible for child abuse or neglect following an investigation either by law enforcement, the Department, or both.
Central Registry : Data pertaining to child abuse or neglect.
Child Maltreatment: Maltreatment occurs when a child age birth through age 17 is physically, emotionally, or sexually harmed.
Abuse:
• Physical: Information indicates the existence of an injury that is unexplained; not consistent with the explanation given; or is non-accidental. The information may also only indicate a substantial risk of bodily injury.
• Emotional : Information indicates psychopathological or disturbed behavior in a child which is documented by a psychiatrist, psychologist or licensed mental health practitioner to be the result of continual scapegoating, rejection or exposure to violence by the child's parent/caretaker.
• Sexual: Information indicates any sexually oriented act, practice, contact, or interaction in which the child is or has been used for the sexual stimulation of a parent, the child, or other person.
Neglect:
- Emotional neglect: Information which indicates that the child is suffering or has suffered severe negative effects due to a parent's failure to provide the opportunities for normal experience which produce feelings of being loved, wanted, secure and worthy. Lack of such opportunities may impair the child's ability to form healthy relationships with others.
- Physical neglect : The failure of the parent to provide for the basic needs, or provide a safe and sanitary living environment for the child.
- Medical Neglect of Handicapped Infant: The withholding of medically indicated treatment (appropriate nutrition, hydration, and medication) from disabled infants with life-threatening conditions. Exceptions include those situations in which the infant is chronically and irreversibly comatose; the provision of this treatment would merely prolong dying or not be effective in ameliorating or correcting all of the infant's life-threatening conditions, and the provision of the treatment itself under these conditions would be inhumane.
Child Welfare: A broad spectrum of services that starts with assessment of safety and risk to the child and provides needed intervention when indicated. It includes services that help to preserve families and enhance family strengths and functioning by actively engaging families in decision making, assessing needs, and linking with resources. It also includes services that children require when out-of-the-home foster care, and different levels of group and therapeutic living arrangements. Finally, when children aren't able to return safely home, children are assisted to permanent living arrangements through services such as adoption, guardianship or other long-term arrangements.
Family Assessment: An in-depth assessment of family issues where their contributing factors are identified. This assessment lays the foundation for a family-centered, child-focused approach to case planning and service delivery.
Findings: There are five categories of findings: Court substantiated, Petition to be filed, Inconclusive, Unable to locate, and Unfounded.
- Court Substantiated : A District Court, County Court, or Separate Juvenile Court has entered a judgment of guilty on a criminal complaint, indictment, or information, or an adjudication of jurisdiction on a juvenile petition under Section 43-247 (3)(a), and the judgment or adjudication relates or pertains to the same matter as the report of abuse or neglect.
- Petition to be Filed : A criminal complaint, indictment, or information or a juvenile petition under Section 43-247(3)(a), that has been filed in District Court, County Court, or Separate Juvenile Court, and that the allegations of the complaint, indictment, information, or juvenile petition relate or pertain to the same subject matter as the report of abuse or neglect.
- Inconclusive : The evidence indicates it is more likely than not (preponderance of evidence standard) that the child abuse or neglect occurred, and a court adjudication did not occur.
- Unable to Locate : Subjects of the maltreatment report have not been located after a good-faith effort on the part of the Department.
- Unfounded : All reports not classified as "court substantiated," "petition to be filed," "inconclusive" or "unable to locate" will be classified as "Unfounded."
Intake: The process of documenting all Child Welfare related contacts with HHS. Intake includes the activities associated with the receipt of a referral, the assessment of screening, the decision to accept, and the referral of individuals or families to services.
Initial Assessment: The gathering and analyzing of information in response to reports of suspected child abuse or neglect, to determine which families need further intervention. During this phase the Protection and Safety Worker is primarily concerned with child safety. The worker determines if child maltreatment did occur, determines the level of risk, and arranges services as necessary to protect the child.
Perpetrator: The person who was found to have committed an offense, as in abuse or neglect of a child.
State Ward : When a court of competent jurisdiction gives custody of a child under the age of 18 to the state, that child becomes a state ward. This is done to provide for safety and/or to facilitate the provision of services. The State acts as the child's parent.
top
Early Development Network
Annual Review : IFSP team meeting held each year to evaluate and, as appropriate, revise the child's IFSP.
Co-lead Agencies : The Department of Health and Human Services and the State Department of Education and any other agencies appointed by the Governor responsible for planning, implementation, and administration of the federal early intervention program and the Early Intervention Act.
Community Supports : Family, friends, neighbors, church programs, health care systems, specialized child care, social services, educational services, and other natural and organized supports a family needs to care for an infant or toddler with disabilities as close to home as possible.
Consent : The parent gives permission for the agency(ies) to do what they propose to do (e.g., evaluate the child, provide services, share information with another agency).
Cultural Competence: Honor and respect for the beliefs, interpersonal styles, attitudes and behaviors both of families who access early intervention services and the staff who provide them. Early intervention policy, administration and practice reflect this honor and respect.
Developmental Delay : Any of the disability classifications or conditions which qualify a child for special education and related services as described in the Special Education Act.
Early Intervention Medicaid Home and Community-Based Waiver : A Medicaid-funded program which pays for services coordination and respite care for infants and toddlers in the Early Intervention Program who have needs which qualify them for Nursing Facility level of care.
Early Intervention Program: The single point of entry to services coordination for eligible infants and toddlers as identified by each planning region team via the systems contract.
Early Intervention Services : The early intervention system contains entitled services and access to other available services designed to meet the developmental needs of each eligible infant or toddler with disabilities and the needs of the family related to enhancing the development of their infant or toddler.
Eligible Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities: Children two years of age or younger who are verified for special education and related services and need early intervention services. Toddlers who reach age three during the school year remain eligible through the end of the school's fiscal year.
Entitlement: Benefit(s) of a program granted by law to persons who fit within defined eligibility criteria. Entitlement through the Early Intervention Act includes services coordination and development of the individualized family service plan.
Family: Parent(s), guardian(s), and/or other persons identified by the family.
Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP): A process for providing early intervention services which results in a written plan for the provision of those services. The plan is developed and implemented in accordance with 480 NAC 10-003 and 92 NAC 51-007.
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part C : Federal law establishing the Early Intervention Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities.
Multidisciplinary Evaluation Team (MDT): A group of persons responsible for evaluating the abilities and needs of an infant or toddler to determine whether or not the infant or toddler is eligible to receive special education and related services.
Native Language : Mode of communication normally used by a child's family.
Natural Environments : Settings that are natural or normal for the child's age peers who have no disabilities.
Nebraska Department of Education Rule 51 : State regulations for special education programs serving children from birth to age 21 (92 NAC 51).
Early Childhood Interagency Coordinating Council : A body of parents, advocates, physicians and representatives from school districts, agencies, educational service units, Head Start, higher education, and the Legislature appointed by the Governor at the state level to advise and assist the collaborating agencies in carrying out the provisions of both state and federal early intervention law.
Need: Shall mean the extent of services coordination necessary as based on the circumstances in each family but shall include the activities that are required to be provided in 34 CFR 303.22.
Notice : A written statement provided to the parents of an eligible child a reasonable time before a public agency or service provider proposes or refuses to initiate or change services. This includes identification, evaluation, or placement of the child or the provision of appropriate early intervention services to the child and the child's family. The statement must contain a description of the action, reasons, and an explanation of procedural safeguards.
Periodic Review : A review of the IFSP which must be conducted every six months, or more frequently if conditions warrant, or the family requests such a review.
Personally Identifiable : Information that would cause a child and his/her family to be recognized. (e.g., name, address, social security number, and characteristics that would make it possible to identify the child and/or family with reasonable certainty).
Planning Region Team: An organized group of parents, advocates and representatives from school districts, agencies, educational service units, Head Start, and other relevant agencies or persons responsible for assisting in the planning and implementation of the Early Intervention Act in each local community or region.
Public Agency: Includes the lead agency and any other political subdivision of the State that is responsible for providing early intervention services to children eligible under Part C and their families.
Referral : Contact made to the Early Intervention Program from any source, with the family's consent.
Services Coordination: A flexible, individualized process of interaction facilitated by a services coordinator to assist a family of an eligible infant or toddler with disabilities within a community to identify and meet the family and child's needs through coordination of informal and formal supports. The activities carried out by a services coordinator to assist and enable an eligible child and the child's family to receive the rights, procedural safeguards, and services that are authorized to be provided under the early intervention program.
Services Coordination Contracting Agency: An agency identified in each planning region which assumes the responsibility to deliver the entitlement of services coordination in the region through a contract with the Department of Health and Human Services.
Special Education and Related Services : See Department of Education Rule 51.
Transition Plan: Documentation of follow-up activities which are to take place when a child no longer receives services through the early intervention system.
top
Back to CAPTA Home
| 
