Illinois Early Intervention to Preschool: Family Transition Guide

Editorial approval scope: The team checked current source fidelity, scope boundaries, dates, arithmetic, reader usefulness, practical workflow, and general-information limitations.

Use the six-month workbook as a family organizer

Illinois's When I'm 3 workbook begins the formal transition process at two years six months and encourages earlier preparation when a family needs it. The workbook is useful for recording family priorities, possible settings, visits, contacts, and questions. Pair it with the child's current IFSP and written notices. The workbook supports the conversation, while the effective federal and state rules and the district's formal notices govern required actions.

Build the calendar from the third birthday

Mark the 30-month point, transition plan, family decision about district referral, information-sharing consent, transition conference, district evaluation consent, assessments, eligibility, IEP, program visit, transportation, final EI date, and first-service date. If the family declines a referral and later changes its mind, ask Child and Family Connections and the district for the current self-referral path and its effect on timing. The federal Part C transition rule supplies the national baseline. The state's effective sources and the family's written notices determine the working dates for this child.

Keep each decision with its real owner

The Illinois Early Intervention transition can touch early intervention, preschool special education, child care, Head Start, health-plan services, private clinicians, and community programs. The early intervention team coordinates its transition duties. A school team decides school eligibility and services. Each community program decides its enrollment. A clinician makes recommendations within scope. A payer decides coverage under the applicable plan. Keep these decisions in separate tracker rows so one approval is never used as evidence for another.

Compare the child's actual day

Within the Illinois handoff, ask what arrival, learning, play, meals, toileting, rest, transportation, therapy, and departure would look like in each proposed setting. Put the weekly schedule beside caregiver work, siblings, medical appointments, travel, and the child's need for recovery time. Visit when possible. Record the supports the program can provide, the evidence still needed, and who can resolve a gap. A program name says little about the child's daily access or the family's workable routine.

Prepare one controlled information packet

For the Illinois family packet, gather the current IFSP, recent evaluations, progress information, family priorities, health and safety information needed for the next setting, and a plain-language description of communication. Include speech, sign, gesture, movement, AAC, backup communication, partner response, and wait time. Add equipment, sensory, mobility, feeding, toileting, medication, allergy, and transportation information when relevant. Index what the family agreed to share, the recipient, the date sent, and confirmation of receipt.

Protect participation during evaluation and transition

During Illinois evaluations and visits, use the communication tools, interpreters, visual access, mobility supports, sensory accommodations, and ordinary health protections the child needs. Ask how the child can accept, decline, pause, request help, and show discomfort. Preserve food, water, bathroom access, mobility, communication, prescribed care, and emergency help throughout the process. Record any access failure as a system issue rather than a child-skill result.

Keep family consent choices specific

A transition referral, permission to share selected EI records, consent for a school evaluation, and consent for initial special education services are separate actions. Ask what each Illinois form covers, who receives the information, and how long the permission lasts. Keep copies. A supportive family member may join meetings without automatically gaining authority to sign, obtain records, or make educational decisions.

A fictional Illinois transition

Owen's family defines 18 items for the six-month transition. Fifteen have completed evidence, so worklist completion is 15 of 18, or 83.3%. The district observation, bus plan, and backup communication board are open. The family postpones its readiness label until those items have owners and dates, while still attending scheduled planning meetings.

Questions for the next meeting

Who is our Child and Family Connections contact? What starts at 30 months? Which referral and disclosure choices are ours? When will the district seek evaluation consent? Which assessments can occur in familiar settings with ordinary supports? When will the eligibility and IEP meetings occur? What community options remain available? How will AAC, sensory, feeding, and transportation supports be ready? Which state or district process handles a disagreement?

A final family checklist

For the next Illinois transition event, confirm the third birthday, sending-program contact, receiving-program contact, transition steps, notification, family choices, consent, records, evaluation, eligibility or enrollment, proposed plan, setting, schedule, communication access, health and safety supports, transportation, final current-service date, first receiving-service date, open issues, escalation route, and post-start check-in. Give every unresolved item an owner and a date. Keep counts beside percentages so unfinished work remains visible.

Turn the Illinois workbook into a receipt-controlled record

Treat a record as handed off only when the family can identify what moved, why it moved, who sent it, who received it, and what action follows. Illinois Department of Human Services, When I'm 3, Where Will I Be? supplies the state framework for this Illinois transition. Use the workbook beside the IFSP and formal notices. Track consent for the referral packet, the documents selected by the family, the destination district or cooperative, receipt, the transition planning conference, evaluation, eligibility, IEP, bus plan, and final EI date. A receipt, dated email, signed form, evaluation report, or written plan gives the tracker stronger evidence than a general statement that the teams are coordinating.

Version control matters when several offices use the same packet. Put the child's name, document title, author, date, family permission, recipient, sent date, receipt date, and missing follow-up in the index. Keep older versions when they explain a decision, then mark the version currently in use. The Illinois handoff record should name one contact for the Child and Family Connections office and another for the school district or special education cooperative. Ask the receiving contact to identify unreadable pages, missing attachments, stale health information, or additional evaluation questions while there is still time to respond.

Rehearse the end of the Illinois six-month process

Walk through the district or cooperative setting, bus route, classroom arrival, backup communication board, sensory and feeding supports, child care, therapies, and family responsibilities across the whole six-month transition. Use the location and approximate time planned for the real first day whenever a visit is available. Confirm who meets the child, who can use the child's communication system, where equipment goes, how health or safety information reaches the responsible staff, and how the family receives a same-day update. A program offer becomes usable only after these connections have owners.

For the Illinois fallback, prepare a named care contact, working communication backup, and written next action if the bus, district observation, or proposed service start remains unresolved. Record the travel duration, waiting time, inaccessible step, missing supply, communication breakdown, fatigue signal, and unresolved question from any rehearsal. Assign every correction to the office able to act and test the high-impact part again. The backup should preserve safe care, a reliable communication method, necessary equipment, and one person authorized to coordinate the next move.

Respond to a late or conflicting Illinois decision

When a target date passes, write a short factual recap with the pending action, source for the expected date, family actions already completed, current impact, requested response, and next follow-up. Child and Family Connections can clarify EI records, referral choices, and the transition conference. The district or cooperative answers evaluation, eligibility, IEP, and transportation questions. A family that revisits an earlier referral decision should request the current self-referral path and new dates. Request the current procedural-safeguard, complaint, mediation, or review information from the system responsible for the exact concern. Preserve call notes and conflicting answers until the responsible offices reconcile them in writing.

Keep contingency planning separate from a legal conclusion about continued services. Ask the Child and Family Connections office, school district or special education cooperative, community program, clinician, and payer to state their own end date, start date, and interim responsibility. Map the care, communication, transportation, and family schedule that can operate while a decision remains open. If a gap remains, show its first affected date and owner. That makes the problem concrete for the next meeting without implying that one system automatically extends or funds another.

Review the first ten and thirty days in Illinois

Owen's 15 of 18 worklist items have completion evidence; the district observation, bus plan, and backup communication board stay open until the family has both a decision and implementation evidence. During the first ten days, review whether the district used the authorized referral packet, Owen can communicate during the bus and classroom routines, and the first delivered services match the accepted IEP. Write observations with the routine, support, child's response, and practical impact. This format helps the receiving team preserve successful supports and investigate repeated access problems.

At the Illinois day-thirty review, compare the actual week with the accepted IFSP, IEP, enrollment plan, authorization, or family schedule. Check attendance, delivered services, setting, transportation, communication access, equipment, health and safety procedures, provider coordination, family workload, and the child's participation or recovery after the day. Record any difference between the written plan and what happened, give it to the school district or special education cooperative or other office that can correct it, and set a response date. A strength, such as an effective partner or routine, belongs in the review beside every gap.

Limits and next steps for this Illinois guide

This draft is an organizer. It cannot decide an individual child's eligibility, placement, services, coverage, rights, or deadline. Current law, the child's record, responsible agency or payer, written notices, and family consent control those decisions. State options and local contacts can change, especially a year-specific extension, an age-based route, or a program affected by funding. Verify the current rule and contact with the Child and Family Connections office and school district or special education cooperative; seek qualified educational, legal, clinical, or benefits advice for disputed or high-impact questions.

Next, place the third birthday and final current-service date on the family calendar. Identify every school, community, and clinical route under consideration, then name its decision owner. Choose the closest unresolved consent, evaluation, meeting, visit, transportation, record, or start action and request its date in writing. Before closing the transition tracker, require a confirmed receiving plan, a workable first-day test, and a post-start review date. Keep each remaining uncertainty visible until its own evidence arrives.