The Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP)
- An Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) documents and guides the
early intervention process for children with disabilities and their
families. The IFSP is the vehicle through which effective early
intervention is implemented in accordance with Part C of the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Also see How the
IFSP Differs from the IEP and Steps that Lead to
Effective IFSPs.
The
IDEA Infant and Toddler Coordinators Association is organized as a
not-for-profit corporation to promote mutual assistance, cooperation,
and exchange of information and ideas in the administration of Part C
and to provide support to state and territory Part C coordinators.
INDIVIDUALIZED FAMILY SERVICE PLAN (PDF documents)
ERIC EC Digest #E605, Mary Beth
Bruder, December 2000
An Individualized Family
Service Plan (IFSP) documents and guides the early intervention process
for children with disabilities and their families. The IFSP is the vehicle
through which effective early intervention is implemented in accordance
with Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). It
contains information about the services necessary to facilitate a child's
development and enhance the family's capacity to facilitate the child's
development. Through the IFSP process, family members and service
providers work as a team to plan, implement, and evaluate services
tailored to the family's unique concerns, priorities, and resources.
According to IDEA, the IFSP shall be in
writing and contain statements of...
the child's present levels of
physical development, cognitive development, communication development,
social or emotional development, and adaptive development.
the family's resources, priorities,
and concerns relating to enhancing the development of the child with a
disability;
the major outcomes to be achieved for
the child and the family; the criteria, procedures, and timelines used
to determine progress; and whether modifications or revisions of the
outcomes or services are necessary;
specific early intervention services
necessary to meet the unique needs of the child and the family,
including the frequency, intensity, and the method of delivery;
the natural environments in which
services will be provided, including justification of the extent, if
any, to which the services will not be provided in a natural
environment;
the projected dates for initiation of
services and their anticipated duration;
the name of the service provider who
will be responsible for implementing the plan and coordinating with
other agencies and persons; and
steps to support the child's
transition to preschool or other appropriate services.
U.S. Department of Education rules
(1993) require that non-Part C services needed by a child, including
medical and other services, are also described in the IFSP, along with the
funding sources for those services. The statute allows parents to be
charged for some services. If a family will be charged, this should be
noted in the IFSP.
How the IFSP
Differs from the IEP
The IFSP differs from the IEP in
several ways:
It revolves around the family, as it
is the family that is the constant in a child's life.
It includes outcomes targeted for the
family, as opposed to focusing only on the eligible child.
It includes the notion of natural
environments, which encompass home or community settings such as parks,
child care, and gym classes. This focus creates opportunities for
learning interventions in everyday routines and activities, rather than
only in formal, contrived environments.
It includes activities undertaken
with multiple agencies beyond the scope of Part C. These are included to
integrate all services into one plan.
It names a service coordinator to
help the family during the development, implementation, and evaluation
of the IFSP.
Steps that
Lead to Effective IFSPs
Identify Family Concerns,
Priorities, and Resources. The family's concerns, priorities, and
resources guide the entire IFSP process. Early intervention should be seen
as a system of services and supports available to families to enhance
their capacity to care for their children. The notion of partnership
between the intervention team and the family must be introduced and
nurtured at this beginning point of the IFSP process.
Identify the Family's Activity
Settings. All children develop as the result of their everyday
experiences. It is important to document valued, enjoyable routines (bath
time, eating, play activities, etc.) and analyze them to see if they offer
the sustained engagement that leads to learning opportunities. Likewise,
it is important to identify the community activity settings (e.g., child
care, gymboree, swimming) that provide opportunities for learning.
Conduct a Functional Assessment.
An effective assessment process
addresses the family's questions
about enhancing their child's development, focusing on each family
member's concerns and priorities
collects information for a specific
purpose, for example, the evaluation conducted by the early
interventionist at the beginning of the IFSP process determines if the
child is eligible for services
reflects a complete and accurate
picture of the child's strengths, needs, preferences for activities,
materials, and environments
has a person familiar to the child
conduct observations and other assessments in settings familiar to the
child (e.g., home, outdoor play area, child care program)
Collaboratively Develop Expected
Outcomes. After assessment information is collected, the team meets to
review the information and the family's concerns, priorities, and
resources to develop statements of expected outcomes or goals. Active
family involvement is essential. Collaborative goals focus on enhancing
the family's capacity and increasing the child's participation in valued
activities.
Assign Intervention
Responsibilities. After outcomes are identified, the early
intervention team assigns responsibilities for intervention services that
support those outcomes. An IFSP requires an integrated, team approach to
intervention. Using a transdisciplinary team model is one method of
integrating information and skills across professional disciplines. In the
transdisciplinary model, all team members (including the family) teach,
learn, and work together to accomplish a mutually agreed upon set of
intervention outcomes. Individuals' roles are defined by the needs of the
situation rather than by the function of a specific discipline.
In a transdisciplinary model, one or a
few people are primary implementers of the program. Other team members
provide ongoing direct or indirect services, such as consultation. For
example, an occupational therapist can observe a toddler during meals,
then recommend to the parent how to physically assist the child.
Identify Strategies to Implement the
Plan. This step involves working closely as a team to increase
learning opportunities, to use the child's surroundings to facilitate
learning, to select the most effective strategies to bring about the
desired outcomes, and identify reinforcers that best support the child's
learning. Implementation may involve a toddler participating in a library
story hour one afternoon a week; a physical therapist showing family
members how to use adaptive equipment; or a service coordinator completing
the paperwork to pay for a child's transportation from his or her home to
needed services.
Intervention strategies should help
promote generalization of outcomes—i.e., the child performs new skills in
a variety of environments after intervention has ended. For example, both
service providers and family members can encourage a child to request
desired objects (e.g, toys) with gestures in numerous environments (e.g.,
home, playgroup, child care).
Interventions should target several
outcomes during one activity. When a child participates in an activity, he
or she uses a variety of skills from a number of developmental areas. For
example, during mealtimes, a toddler may use communication skills to
request more juice, fine motor skills to grasp a spoon, a social skills to
interact with a sibling.
Intervention strategies should help a
child become more independent in his or her world. The selected strategies
might involve offering physical assistance during mealtimes, prompting the
correct response during a self-care routine, or providing simple pull-on
clothing to enable a child to dress without assistance.
Interventions provided within natural
environments should look like a "typical activity." For instance, a child
learning to develop her fine motor skills should be encouraged to color,
draw pictures, play with puzzles, build with blocks, pick up her toys, use
eating utensils, play finger games, etc. Ideally, interventions should
Be embedded in everyday natural
environments.
Emphasize the acquisition of
functional competencies.
Make it possible to increase a
child's participation within the environments.
Include both social and non-social
activities
Evaluate Early Intervention to Ensure
Quality
Both ongoing and periodic evaluations
are essential to any early intervention program. An evaluation may focus
on a child's progress toward obtaining desired outcomes and upon the
quality of the intervention program itself. Ongoing monitoring of the
child's progress requires keeping records in a systematic manner in order
to answer such critical questions as
To what extent and at what rate is
the child making progress toward attaining outcomes?
Are the selected intervention
strategies and activities promoting gains in development?
Do changes need to be made in the
intervention plan?
Periodically reviewing the IFSP
provides a means of sharing results about the child's progress and
integrating these results into the plan. Part C of IDEA requires that the
IFSP be evaluated and revised annually and that periodic reviews be
conducted at least every six months (or sooner if requested by the
family). This ongoing process provides a continual support to the family
and child as they realize their own strengths and resources to help their
child learn.
Resources
Brown, W., Thurman, S.K., & Pearl, L.F.
(1993). Family centered early intervention with infants and
toddlers:innovative cross-disciplinary approaches. Baltimore, MD: Paul H.
Brookes Publishing Co.
Division for Early Childhood. (1993).
DEC recommended practices: Indicators of quality in programs for infants
and young children with special needs and their families. Reston, VA: The
Council for Exceptional Children.
Lerner, J.W., Lowenthal, B., and Egar,
R. (1998). Preschool children with special needs. Needham Heights, MA:
Allyn & Bacon.
Zhang, C. & Bennett, T. (2000). The
IFSP/IEP process: Do recommended practices address culturally and
linguistically diverse families? (CLAS Technical Report #10). Champaign,
IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Early Childhood Research
Institute on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services.
