Kentucky First Steps 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.

Recognize the KEIS name and keep the Point of Entry visible

Kentucky's current KEIS page notes that the program was formerly called First Steps and identifies smooth transition as a service standard. The Kentucky family guide describes the Point of Entry and Primary Service Coordinator. Keep those names beside the local school contact so a family searching under the former program name reaches the current office and does not lose an active transition task.

Build the calendar from the third birthday

Kentucky's KEIS policy begins transition planning at the initial IFSP and places the conference 90 days to nine months before the third birthday. Track IFSP steps, education notification, family agreement and invitations, conference, evaluation consent, assessments, eligibility, IEP, initial-service consent, transportation, final KEIS service, and first school service. Ask for the current late-referral route when ordinary timing cannot be met. The federal Part C transition rule supplies the national baseline for notification, late referrals, conferences, IFSP steps, and state options. Kentucky's effective sources and the family's current written notices control the working plan for this child.

Keep every decision with its actual owner

The Kentucky First Steps transition may involve Kentucky Early Intervention System, preschool special education, Head Start, child care, a health plan, private clinicians, and community programs. The Part C team owns its coordination duties. The education agency decides school eligibility and services. Each community program controls enrollment. A clinician recommends within scope, and a payer decides coverage under the plan. Use separate tracker rows so one organization's approval never stands in for another's.

Compare the child's complete weekly routine

For the Kentucky handoff, place each proposed schedule beside caregiver work, siblings, medical visits, travel time, and the child's recovery needs. Ask what arrival, learning, play, meals, toileting, rest, transportation, therapy, and departure would look like. Visit the actual site when possible. Record which supports are confirmed, which evidence is missing, and who can resolve each gap. A program category does not show whether the child's day or the family's week will work.

Prepare a controlled transition packet

The Kentucky packet can include the current IFSP, recent evaluations, progress information, family priorities, and the health or safety information needed by the next setting. Describe speech, sign, gesture, movement, AAC, backup communication, partner response, and wait time in plain language. Add equipment, sensory, mobility, feeding, toileting, medication, allergy, and transportation details when relevant. Index what the family agreed to share, the recipient, the date sent, and confirmation of receipt.

Protect access during evaluation and visits

During Kentucky evaluations, meetings, and program visits, use the child's ordinary communication tools, interpreters, visual access, mobility supports, sensory accommodations, and health protections. Ask how the child can accept, decline, pause, request help, and show discomfort. Preserve food, water, bathroom access, movement, communication, prescribed care, and emergency help. Document an access failure as a system condition so it is not mistaken for evidence about the child's ability.

Prevent a program-name change from breaking the handoff

A pediatrician, insurer, preschool, or older record may still say First Steps while current state documents say KEIS. Index both names in the family packet, but use the current Point of Entry, coordinator, and forms. Confirm that every receiving party recognizes the same child and transition record. A terminology mismatch should be corrected before it causes a duplicate referral, missed request, or assumption that the family left the program.

A fictional Kentucky transition

Grace's family audits 13 organizations and documents that use one of the two program names. Eleven map to the current KEIS contact and child record, giving 11 of 13, or 84.6% identity alignment. The health plan and community preschool still use an outdated fax destination. The coordinator confirms the new route before the family sends records.

Questions for the next meeting

Which current KEIS Point of Entry and coordinator own the case? Does any record still use First Steps? What IFSP transition steps are complete? When is the conference? Which school evaluation and consent are required? When will eligibility and the IEP be decided? Which community options need separate applications? How will transportation, AAC, feeding, medication, mobility, and sensory supports be ready? Which process corrects a missed step?

A final family checklist

Before the next Kentucky transition event, confirm the third birthday, sending-program contact, receiving-program contacts, IFSP steps, notification, family choices, consent, records, conference, evaluation, eligibility or enrollment, proposed plan, setting, schedule, communication access, health and safety supports, transportation, last Part C date, first receiving-service date, open issues, escalation route, and post-start check-in. Give every unresolved item one named owner and one next date. Keep counts beside percentages so unfinished work stays visible.

Resolve First Steps and KEIS to one Kentucky identity

Build proof around the state-specific handoff, not merely a list of meetings. Kentucky Early Intervention System, Policies and Procedures supplies the current primary framework for this Kentucky guide. Index First Steps as the former name and KEIS as the current program, then map every older record, referral, contact, and fax destination to the same child and current Point of Entry. Track IFSP steps, conference, evaluation consent, eligibility, IEP, initial-service consent, transportation, and school start under that verified identity. A dated notice, signed consent, receipt, evaluation report, eligibility record, plan, or enrollment decision should close the corresponding tracker row. A scheduled event stays in progress until its result reaches the family.

Give every cross-system record an index entry with title, author, date, purpose, family permission, sender, recipient, sent date, receipt confirmation, correction, and next action. Keep earlier versions when they explain a decision, then mark the version the receiving team currently uses. Name one contact for the KEIS Point of Entry and Primary Service Coordinator and another for the local education agency. Ask the receiving contact to identify unreadable pages, missing attachments, stale health information, or new evaluation questions before the next decision meeting.

Test the Kentucky handoff after the name change

Walk through the KEIS exit, local school setting, transportation, AAC, feeding, medication, mobility and sensory supports, community care, therapy, and every office still using the former program name. Use the actual location and approximate travel time planned for the first day whenever a visit is available. Confirm who meets the child, who can use the communication system, where equipment and health information go, and how the family reaches the responsible person during the day. A placement, program, or service route becomes workable when those connections have names and evidence.

Prepare a current contact sheet and verified record destination so an outdated First Steps label cannot send an urgent record or question to an abandoned route. Record the travel duration, waiting time, inaccessible step, missing material, communication breakdown, fatigue signal, and question found during rehearsal. Assign every correction to an office or person able to act, then retest the highest-impact part. The backup should preserve safe care, a reliable communication method, necessary equipment, and one person who can coordinate the next decision.

Recover a late or conflicting Kentucky action

When a target date passes, send a short written recap naming the action, source for the expected date, family steps already completed, current impact, requested response, and next follow-up. KEIS owns Part C transition planning and conference coordination. The LEA owns school evaluation, eligibility, IEP, and implementation. A provider or payer using the former name should correct its routing record while preserving the underlying history and child identity. Ask the responsible system for its current procedural-safeguard, complaint, mediation, or review information when the concern remains unresolved. Keep conflicting answers in the record until the responsible offices reconcile them.

Contingency planning should identify real care and support without predicting a legal outcome. Ask the KEIS Point of Entry and Primary Service Coordinator, local education agency, community program, clinician, and payer to state their own end or start dates and interim responsibilities. Mark the first affected date for any gap in care, communication, transportation, equipment, or family coverage. This gives the next meeting a concrete problem while preserving the separate authority of each system.

Review the first ten and thirty days in Kentucky

Grace's family begins the post-start review with 11 of 13 organizations and records map to the current KEIS identity; the outdated health-plan and community-preschool fax destinations remain active until each has a decision and implementation proof. During the first ten days, check whether every receiving organization recognizes the KEIS identity, Grace's services and records reached the intended school team, and no former-name route remains the only contact for a live task. Describe each observation with the routine, support, child's response, and practical impact. That record helps the receiving team preserve effective supports and investigate a repeated access problem.

At the Kentucky day-thirty review, compare the actual week with the accepted IFSP, IEP, enrollment plan, authorization, or family schedule. Check attendance, delivered services, location, transportation, communication access, equipment, health and safety procedures, provider coordination, family workload, and the child's participation or recovery after the day. Send any gap between the written plan and delivered support to the office that can correct it and assign a response date. Record strengths beside gaps because a successful partner or routine tells the team what to preserve.

Limits and immediate next steps for Kentucky families

This draft organizes transition work. It cannot determine an individual child's eligibility, placement, service, coverage, right, or deadline. Current law, the child's record, written notices, family consent, and the responsible agency, program, or payer control those decisions. State options, manuals, portals, local contacts, and program capacity can change. Verify the operative source and assigned owner with the KEIS Point of Entry and Primary Service Coordinator and local education agency; seek qualified educational, legal, clinical, or benefits advice when a disputed or high-impact question requires it.

Next, place the third birthday and last current-service date on the family calendar. List every school, community, developmental-disability, and clinical route under consideration, then name its decision owner. Choose the closest unresolved consent, record, evaluation, meeting, site visit, transportation, or start action and request its date in writing. Keep the tracker open until the family has a confirmed receiving plan, a usable first-day test, and a post-start review date.