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Dear Early Intervention Partners,
The Colorado Department of Early Childhood (CDEC) would like to provide an update on our upcoming work together on potential cost-saving strategies to support the sustainability of the Early Intervention (EI) Program. Based on feedback from our partners, CDEC is shifting to a workgroup format to gather feedback. This will streamline the process and prioritize feasible strategies while respecting community partners’ time. Workgroup meetings will take the place of previously scheduled EI Input Sessions.
Workgroups will be structured to ensure a broad array of perspectives and voices. CDEC believes this method will support gathering meaningful input. This new structure will be as follows:
- Members from the Colorado Interagency Coordinating Council (CICC) will facilitate four workgroups.
- EI Colorado staff will:
- Attend each workgroup to clarify and provide information or data
- Provide pre-recorded webinars on the workgroup topic to share needed background information and cost analysis
- Follow up with additional information as the workgroup identifies questions
- Twenty individuals will be selected to participate in each group. Participants will only participate in one workgroup to ensure broader perspectives.
- Workgroup participants must:
- Be available to attend all workgroup meetings for the selected topic. Workgroups will meet one to three times for 90 minutes
- Represent their discipline or community
- If you are interested in being a workgroup participant, please complete this Sustainability Strategies Workgroup Interest Google Form by the end of the day on July 31, 2025
- All workgroup meetings are open to the public to listen to the Workgroup discussion. The pre-recorded webinars for each workgroup will be posted to the EI Colorado website before workgroups begin in August. The topics and workgroup schedule are linked here and are also available on the EI Colorado website.
- Feedback from the public may be provided on the EI Strategies Input Google Form that will be included in the Joint Budget Committee’s (JBC’s) Request for Information (RFI) due December 15, 2025.
- One of the criteria for exploration of potential strategies is whether the strategy would require Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) approval. Two of the proposed strategies were found to be unallowable based on OSEP guidance and requirement to individualize services; therefore, they will not be discussed as part of the workgroups:
- Implement a tiered service model, where families with less complex needs receive fewer units, thus allowing redistribution of resources to families with more complex needs
- Require at least 50% of visits to be conducted through Telehealth
- An overview of the TEAM EI Colorado model will be presented as a webinar on August 19th at 2:00 p.m., which will also be recorded for those who cannot attend. This initiative began in 2022 as part of the Workforce Investment Committee’s (WIC) recommendations for workforce recruitment and retention and is not identified as a cost-saving measure.
For more information, please visit the EI Colorado Calendar and Program Updates. For questions, please email Lenita Hartman at Lenita.Hartman@state.co.us.
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