First Steps of West Central Indiana

Cluster F

Meeting Notes for May 21^st 2009

The Cluster F, 1^st Quarter LPCC meeting was held on Thursday, May 21st, at First Baptist Church, Shelburn IN.  The meeting was called to order by Crystal Hasket (CASY), LPCC Co-chair.  After introductions, the minutes of the Feb 26th 2009 meeting were discussed. The meeting minutes were approved on a motion from Kim Swinson (EHS/HS) with a second from Angela Meranda( FS provider)

Dawn shared the final billing documents for the 08-09 program year.  The state has said we can request a roll-over of whatever funds remain.  This will help, though not make up for the $74K shortfall we took in the most recent allocation and it will only be for the one year period.  Rollover dollars are available due to staffing changes and personnel dollars not being spent when a position is open.  Rollover dollars are also accumulated with the savings on benefits for open positions.  Dawn also reminded the group that Hamilton Center, fiscal agent, provides approximately $20K each year in in-kind contributions.  This offsets the administrative overhead costs that are not allowable in the grant.  Dawn noted that health insurance costs are rising and the next budget will require more dollars to be allocated to mileage.  The 08-09 budget went over budget approximately $3K.  We were able to make up this deficit by moving some funds.  The fiscal agent is allowed to move funds without prior approval from the grantor as long as no funding line gains or loses more than 10% of its original amount.  While the “Work Smart” strategic plan has reduced mileage costs, they remain higher than anticipated.  Dawn also mentioned that we would do another pancake breakfast next year as well as an Applebee’s “Dining to Donate” event.  (We raised $800 in February through an Applebee’s Pancake Breakfast.  These funds will be used to purchase “thank you” items for referral sources and other referral source development items that are not allowable in the grant.)

. 

Peggy discussed referral numbers and child count numbers.  While some counties are showing steady improvement in numbers, other counties are not growing as one might expect.

We now have a new state wide progress report form that providers are required to use. It is a fill in form and training within our cluster has occurred both at provider meetings and on a one to one basis as needed. This uniform progress report will make it easier to read, as it is typed as well as making the report format uniform when providers are working in more than one cluster.

Peggy & Dawn reported on the Data Team and the Provider Issues Committee.  The Data Team has been meeting since late summer and helped craft the Cluster Performance Plan based on data from quality review and holdback data.  The Data Team is currently examining available information with regard to referral on children under the age of 1 as well as information about where our referrals originate and the number of referrals that move to IFSP. Some time has been spent gathering data about the impact of the public awareness events and activities.

The Provider Issues Committee (PIC) has been meeting to discuss the 30 day start notice as well as how to support/encourage providers to submit their progress reports on a timely basis. Their goal is reduce the amount of time that SC spend reminding providers to get their reports in.  This committee will help craft SPOE policies and procedures for these issues as well as monitor the progress in these areas.

Peggy discussed provider recruitment and retention. We have enrolled one Early Intervention SLP from Illinois and she is currently serving children in our cluster as well as in Cluster D. Over the last two months, five providers have contacted the SPOE/LPCC coordinator and asked for information about becoming a First Steps provider. As well as answering their questions and providing them links to the UTS ProKids website, the FSSA state website and our local website (firststepswestcentral.com) an attempt has been made to match interested prospective providers with ongoing First Steps providers to help support that enrollment process. These inquiries will be tracked and  follow up calls or emails will be conducted to see if any additional help is needed to complete their enrollment process.

Quarterly First Steps provider meetings are being offered in two locations in our cluster, with one being held at the public Library in Washington and the other being held at the Vigo County library, We are still searching for a suitable location to hold one in either Putnam or Owen county. Some of the suggestions were to ask local churches if they had space that could be used without a fee.

The AEPS training staff is currently reviewing both the training and the training materials to make sure that they are updated and offer the most current information on the AEPS. The new training information will be used in the August AEPS training. It was noted that our cluster can still host an AEPS training if we have 15 providers interested in completing the training locally.

Peggy shared the public awareness blitz recently completed in Parke and Vermillion counties.  This will be based on the trial program which was initiated in Clay recently with referral sources, community partner being targeted as well as placing First Steps information in public places such as libraries, churches and stores.

First Steps personnel are planning on participating in a variety of community activities in our cluster in an attempt to make our presence know without our communities. We are planning on working with some of our community partners with car seat clinics, local fairs, and health fairs as time permits.

With no other business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately 12:30 p.m.  The next meeting will be Thursday, September 24, 2009, at the same location.

First Steps of West Central Indiana

Cluster F

Meeting Notes for February 26^th 2009

The Cluster F, 4^th Quarter LPCC meeting was held on Thursday, February 26, 2009, at First Baptist Church, Shelburn.  The meeting was called to order by Crystal Hasket, LPCC Co-chair.  After introductions, the minutes of the December 4, 2008 meeting were discussed.  There was a misspelling of Angela Meranda’s name.  With this correction, the meeting minutes were approved on a motion from Kim Swinson, with a second from Angela Meranda.  Visiting were Janet Ballard and Suzanne Sears, State First Steps consultants.

The 2009-2010 RFF and allocation were discussed.  Dawn Carlson, SPOE Director, shared that the RFF is very similar to the 2008-2009 format with mostly the same program outcomes.  The allocation, however, was significantly reduced.  The 10% overall reduction amounts to approximately $74,000.  This reduction necessitates the reduction of 2 staff members.  The scheduler / file clerk position will be eliminated.  One ongoing service coordinator is in the process of resigning and that position will not be replaced.  Approximately 91% of our overall allocation goes into salaries, benefits and occupancy costs.  These leaves us very little to cover the materials, mileage and direct costs.  The budget has been stripped to the bare bones and we hope we will be able to survive.  The state has agreed to allow us to rollover any unused dollars from the 08-09 program year.  Due to staff vacancies, we might be able to roll over approximately $25-28K which will help in the next year’s budget.   Dawn reported that she wanted to protect the salaries of intake / ongoing service coordinators; that staff had been working hard to reduce mileage costs by carefully clustering their visits with families and using the “work smart” procedures.  Angie Meranda asked about insurance costs.  Dawn explained that there were three cost levels (employee only, employee & spouse, employee & family) and that staff pay approximately 20% of the cost and the program pays about 80%.  The budget was presented and both the budget and the RFF were approved by the council.

Peggy discussed referral numbers and child count numbers.  While some counties are showing steady improvement in numbers, other counties are not growing as one might expect.  Angie asked about target numbers.  Targets would make it easier to see where we are with regard to overall expectation and where we need to work harder.  As the state does not give target numbers at this time, Dawn said she would research what might be appropriate target numbers and share those.

Peggy & Dawn reported on the Data Team and the Provider Issues Committee.  The Data Team has been meeting since late summer and helped craft the Cluster Performance Plan based on data from quality review and holdback data.  The Data Team is currently examining available information with regard to referral on children under the age of 1.

The Provider Issues Committee (PIC) has met once with another meeting scheduled in March.  The PIC sent out an email to all providers asking that they check their email each business day so as not to miss important information coming out of the SPOE office.  This has been especially critical with the CRO conversation from EDS to CSC Covansys.  The PIC is also looking at the issue of 30-day start documentation and tracking and timely submission of progress reports.  This committee will help craft SPOE policies and procedures for these issues.

Peggy talked about provider recruitment and the issues we are having with recruiting new providers.  Recruiting providers during this time has been especially difficult with the CRO conversion.  Janet mentioned that our issues are very similar to those around the state.  Janet has been very helpful in shepherding through paperwork to get new providers on the matrix as easily as possible.  Peggy reported that she had talked to at least one Illinois provider, but that the provider had not maintained contact.

Peggy shared the public awareness blitz recently completed in Clay County.  This is a two-week period of trying to hit all media outlets and logical referral sources in an effort to saturate the community with First Steps information.  Peggy has taken what she’s learned in this process and is working to document the process so that it can, with appropriate changes, be replicated in other counties.  She has recently met with some First Steps providers to start planning a similar blitz in Parke and Vermillion counties.

Dawn reported that the Progress Report is almost finished.  We have been working to ensure there are enough pages for multiple outcomes.  She and Peggy are working to put together a brief “training” piece that will accompany this report form.

Dawn share the results of the FlapJack Fundraiser held in Terre Haute on February 7.  We raised $820 and received another $200 donation.  These funds will be used for referral source development and public awareness costs that we feel cannot legitimately be charged to the grant.  Norma asked about doing a similar event at the Applebees in Vincennes.  Dawn mentioned that we would do this again next year and probably do a “Dining to Donate” fundraiser before next year.

The LPCC as a whole discussed strategies for two strategic plans that are required components of the RFF.  The first plan is to be built around strategies for identifying and serving children under the age of one.  Suggested strategies are:

·         Targeting doctors (Dawn shared a brief summary of a Q&A that has been drafted for physicians.  One of the talking points is the need not to wait when making referrals.)

·         Targeting NICUs.  The Union Hospital (Terre Haute) NICU is our only NICU.  A member of the Data Team has already spoken to a NICU nurse and plans are being made to do training.

·         Targeting hospital nurseries, maternal health clinics and WIC offices

·         Targeting DCS offices.  Peggy shared that she has had trouble getting DCS offices to agree to include First Steps in staff trainings.  Angie suggested that if we could get some DCS caseworker’s emails, we could circumvent the management and go straight to the staff.

·         The Data Team suggested that we find an assessment tool similar to the one we use for children 0-12 weeks and use that for children 12-24 weeks.  They felt that this was a group not easily covered in developmental assessment with the AEPS.  This information will also be shared with the EDT at their 3/14 meeting.

The second strategic plan is in regards to provider recruitment.  While we continue to struggle, as all clusters do, we are investigating these strategies.

·         Contacting potential providers through schools, hospitals and clinics

·         Create policies / procedures to support the “mentoring” of new providers by old providers.  This would help new providers navigate the enrollment and billing system and provide the veteran providers with some training credit / credentialing points.

First Steps of West Central Indiana

Quarterly Cluster LPCC Meeting

December 4, 2008

Meeting Notes

The Cluster F LPCC met in their quarterly meeting on December 4^th 2008, at First Baptist Church in Shelburn.  Angela Meranda( First Step Provider). called the meeting to order at 10:00

Introductions were made and the minutes from the September meeting were reviewed and approved as read on a motion from Peggy Hutson, with a second from Jennifer Swinehart.

Peggy Eppert shared three mini-posters that were developed for Angie Meranda to use at the Greencastle Library and are also available for anyone to use.  These are available on the website at www.firststepswestcentral.com.   Peggy also shared the Healthy Start, Grow Smart booklets that were ordered from the federal government.  This series of booklets for parents on development from birth to 35 months will be used by intake / service coordinators and we will put sets, with contact information, in physician’s offices and WIC offices.  (You can view and / or order these booklets online at http://cms.ntis.gov/ .  They are free and are also available in Spanish.  The SPOE did order 10 sets in Spanish.)  Peggy also shared the little gifts that were made to give to nurses and office staff  in doctor’s offices.  We purchased flower seed packets for $.10 and $.15, made overlays with information about First Steps and Peggy mounted them on popsicle sticks.  They have been very well received by those to whom they have been given.

There was a general discussion about child find and how numbers are fluctuating throughout the cluster.  Dawn shared some state / cluster data including how the various clusters compare based on the most recently available profile data generated by the state.  General impressions include that Cluster F:

First Steps of West Central Indiana

Quarterly Transition Team Meeting

December 4, 2008

Meeting Notes

The Transition Team meeting convened immediately following the Cluster LPCC meeting an lunch.  Virginia Rutherford facilitated.

The Team reviewed their performance indicators. 

• The 90-270 days before exit timeline for transition meetings has been going very well.  For last program year’s second holdback report, we were at 100%.  There were two out of compliance in the last 6 months.  One was service coordinator error and one was the result of a child’s hospitalization and repeated cancellations by the family.  Staff has been instructed to make every effort to complete transition by day 120, giving them a 30-day cushion for reschedules.
• LEA attendance at transition meetings has been going well.  Peggy H. shared that there are times when she is unable to attend and quite often service coordinators are scheduling a second transition meeting to better meet Peggy’s schedule.
• IEPs in place by the child’s 3^rd birthday – Peggy reported that this is often a situation where parents have had difficulty following through.
• Signatures on MOA – All signatures were obtained for last year’s MOA and we currently have 11 of the required 17 signatures for this year’s MOA

Virginia reported on the transition sub-groups that are meeting in the cluster.  We currently have two groups – Davies / Knox / Martin and Greene / Sullivan.  At the September meeting, Virginia will give an update on these groups and their schedules for the coming year.  D/K/M will be meeting officially each quarter, but unofficially every month throughout the school year.  G/S will meet officially 3 times through the year.

The Team reviewed the brainstorming list from 2 years ago to determine how things are progressing with regard to transition.  This exercise helped celebrate success and identify items for this year’s work plan.

One discussion was held regarding the best way to make resources available to service coordinators and families.  Peggy explained the “Purple Binder”, the state required resource notebook.  Currently the county resource grids are available online at the cluster website.  We talked about identifying a page for each county that would have links to county created resources as well as a downloadable one page sheet of contact information for each county.   We will continue to explore the best way to keep this information.

There was much discussion about the proposed changes to Article 7 as a result of the changes in federal IDEA legislation.  We agreed to have this is a topic of discussion for the September meeting and Norma suggested that we invite Linda Whitman from IN*Source to come and talk about the changes. (Norma has confirmed that Linda will be able to join us.)

Virginia shared many new resources that are available and took notes to create the new workplan.

With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.

First Steps of West Central Indiana

Quarterly Cluster LPCC Meeting

September 25, 2008

Meeting Notes

The Cluster F LPCC met in their quarterly meeting on September 25th, 2008, at First Baptist Church in Shelburn.  Angie Meranda called the meeting to order.

Introductions were made and the minutes from the May meeting were reviewed and approved as read on a motion from Nedra Long (parent representative) , with a second from Winnie Theising(parent representative). Peggy Eppert( LPCC Coordinator) asked current members to suggest names of additional First Steps family members to join the council. Please send names and contact information to her by email or contact her by phone.

Minutes from the May meeting were read and approved after a discussion about whether there were enough members present to have a vote.

Peggy Eppert briefly discussed the cluster performance plan and the results of the onsite reviews with the group.

Copies of the budget for the First Steps year 2008-2009 were passed out and discussed by the group. The only specific question during the budget review was about how the remaining money in the budget was allocated (or earmarked) for the rest of this operating year. This question was referred to Dawn Carlson for discussion at the next meeting.

In response to the  State sponsored Data Training that Dawn Carlson (SPOE supervisor), Jennifer Stutler ( Service Coordinator Supervisor) and Peggy Eppert ( LPCC coordinator) attended, a new committee has been formed to look at our specific data surrounding the concerns we have about how First Steps is working in our cluster. This committee has met twice and has begun to gather specific information about the number of referrals, the referral sources, child count information as well as other information that impacts First Steps in our cluster. This committee is looking both at current numbers and at trends over the last five years in our counties. Reports from this committee will continue to be shared at our full cluster meetings.

Members participated in a discussion concerning general population of children birth to three in our cluster and referral sources, including those that have made referrals in the past as compared to those who are currently making referrals. Information was shared between members about how to increase appropriate referrals, how to increase the number and availability of providers for our families, and suggestions about how to approach public awareness activities to reach referral sources including families. LPCC members were encouraged to share ideas, suggestions and contacts with the LPCC coordinator at any time.

Provider surveys were sent out and the results are being compiled. That information will be shared at the next LPCC meeting.

A discussion was held about the number of providers available to families in our cluster. Providers who are no longer available in our cluster are contacted by the LPCC coordinator to determine why they are no longer working in our cluster or to determine if they are no longer providing First Steps services. Those providers are typically indicating that the distance traveled, and the cost of gas are the primary reasons for not providing services in our cluster.

First Steps of West Central Indiana

Quarterly Cluster LPCC Meeting

May 22, 2008

Meeting Notes

The Cluster F LPCC met in their quarterly meeting on May 22, 2008, at First Baptist Church in Shelburn.  Crystal Haskett called the meeting to order and discussed, briefly, the upcoming Autism Walk on September 20, at Memorial Stadium in Terre Haute.

Introductions were made and the minutes from the January meeting were reviewed and approved as read on a motion from Peggy Hutson, with a second from Norma Gee.

Dawn Carlson briefly discussed the cluster performance plan and stated that we continue to make progress and will know better how we are doing after the state onsite visit which is currently scheduled for June 4^th.

Peggy Eppert shared three mini-posters that were developed for Angie Meranda to use at the Greencastle Library and are also available for anyone to use.  These are available on the website at www.firststepswestcentral.com.   Peggy also shared the Healthy Start, Grow Smart booklets that were ordered from the federal government.  This series of booklets for parents on development from birth to 35 months will be used by intake / service coordinators and we will put sets, with contact information, in physician’s offices and WIC offices.  (You can view and / or order these booklets online at http://cms.ntis.gov/ .  They are free and are also available in Spanish.  The SPOE did order 10 sets in Spanish.)  Peggy also shared the little gifts that were made to give to nurses and office staff in doctor’s offices.  We purchased flower seed packets for $.10 and $.15, made overlays with information about First Steps and Peggy mounted them on popsicle sticks.  They have been very well received by those to whom they have been given.

There was a general discussion about child find and how numbers are fluctuating throughout the cluster.  Dawn shared some state / cluster data including how the various clusters compare based on the most recently available profile data generated by the state.  General impressions include that Cluster F:

First Steps of West Central Indiana

Quarterly Transition Team Meeting

May 22, 2008

Meeting Notes

The Transition Team meeting convened immediately following the Cluster LPCC meeting an lunch.  Virginia Rutherford facilitated.

The Team reviewed their performance indicators. 

• The 90-270 days before exit timeline for transition meetings has been going very well.  For last program year’s second holdback report, we were at 100%.  There were two out of compliance in the last 6 months.  One was service coordinator error and one was the result of a child’s hospitalization and repeated cancellations by the family.  Staff has been instructed to make every effort to complete transition by day 120, giving them a 30-day cushion for reschedules.
• LEA attendance at transition meetings has been going well.  Peggy H. shared that there are times when she is unable to attend and quite often service coordinators are scheduling a second transition meeting to better meet Peggy’s schedule.
• IEPs in place by the child’s 3^rd birthday – Peggy reported that this is often a situation where parents have had difficulty following through.
• Signatures on MOA – All signatures were obtained for last year’s MOA and we currently have 11 of the required 17 signatures for this year’s MOA

Virginia reported on the transition sub-groups that are meeting in the cluster.  We currently have two groups – Davies / Knox / Martin and Greene / Sullivan.  At the September meeting, Virginia will give an update on these groups and their schedules for the coming year.  D/K/M will be meeting officially each quarter, but unofficially every month throughout the school year.  G/S will meet officially 3 times through the year.

The Team reviewed the brainstorming list from 2 years ago to determine how things are progressing with regard to transition.  This exercise helped celebrate success and identify items for this year’s work plan.

One discussion was held regarding the best way to make resources available to service coordinators and families.  Peggy explained the “Purple Binder”, the state required resource notebook.  Currently the county resource grids are available online at the cluster website.  We talked about identifying a page for each county that would have links to county created resources as well as a downloadable one page sheet of contact information for each county.   We will continue to explore the best way to keep this information.

There was much discussion about the proposed changes to Article 7 as a result of the changes in federal IDEA legislation.  We agreed to have this is a topic of discussion for the September meeting and Norma suggested that we invite Linda Whitman from IN*Source to come and talk about the changes. (Norma has confirmed that Linda will be able to join us.)

Virginia shared many new resources that are available and took notes to create the new workplan.

With no further discussion, the meeting was adjourned.

These minutes were approved and finalized by the LPCC at their meeting on Thursday, September 25, 2008 and are now available for publication.