Maine Early Intervention to Preschool: Family Guide

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

Confirm whether CDS or the SAU owns the preschool action

Maine's current FAPE page says all SAUs must offer preschool special education by July 1, 2028 and describes entry through Early Intervention transition, referral, and evaluation. The CDS page remains the current Part C and regional-service doorway. Ask CDS and the resident SAU to identify, in writing, who owns child find, evaluation, eligibility, IEP development, placement, transportation, and service delivery on each relevant date.

Build one age-three control calendar

Maine's transition resources describe coordinated work so an eligible child has an IEP before age three. Track the IFSP transition plan, notification and opt-out information, conference, receiving-owner confirmation, record transfer, evaluation consent, assessments, eligibility, IEP, placement, final Part C service, and first preschool service. Recheck ownership after a move or cohort change rather than carrying an old office name forward. The federal Part C transition rule provides the shared baseline for notification, late referral, conferences, and IFSP transition steps. Use Maine's current effective source and the family's own notices for operational dates, responsible offices, and available state choices.

Separate decisions before comparing routes

The Maine Early Intervention transition can touch Maine Early Intervention for ME and Child Development Services, the education agency, Head Start, child care, community preschool, health-plan services, and private clinicians. The Part C team coordinates its exit work. The education team decides school eligibility and services. Each early learning program decides enrollment. Clinicians recommend within scope, and payers decide coverage. Give every decision a separate row, source, owner, due date, and status.

Test the child's actual week

For a Maine receiving route, map arrival, instruction, play, meals, toileting, rest, transportation, therapy, and departure. Put that schedule beside caregiver work, siblings, health appointments, travel, and recovery time. Visit the actual setting when possible. Record the communication, sensory, mobility, feeding, health, and staffing supports that are confirmed. A program label or eligibility category does not show whether the child's day will be accessible.

Build a purposeful record handoff

Gather the current IFSP, relevant evaluations, progress information, family priorities, and the health or safety information the next Maine setting needs. Describe speech, sign, gesture, movement, AAC, backup communication, partner response, and wait time. Add equipment, sensory, mobility, feeding, toileting, medication, allergy, and transportation details as applicable. Index family authorization, the exact records sent, recipient, delivery date, and confirmation of receipt.

Preserve access during every transition activity

During Maine evaluations, conferences, and visits, use the child's usual communication tools, interpreters, visual supports, mobility access, sensory accommodations, and health protections. Give the child a reliable way to accept, decline, pause, request help, and show discomfort. Preserve food, water, bathroom access, movement, prescribed care, and emergency help. Record an access failure as a system condition so it is not misread as the child's performance.

Plan through Maine's phased FAPE transfer

Maine's FAPE onboarding page directs SAUs to coordinate with CDS on files, placements, family communication, staffing, equipment, transportation, and implementation. For a family, the practical control is an owner-by-date matrix. Record which organization holds the file today, who will hold it on the child's third birthday, and which office answers a missed evaluation, service, or transportation step.

A fictional Maine handoff

Mae's family lists 18 transition duties across CDS and the SAU. Fifteen have an owner and handoff date, giving 15 of 18, or 83.3% ownership completeness. The assistive-technology transfer, bus authorization, and summer contact remain unclear. The family requests one joint written response before the responsibility date changes.

Questions for the next transition meeting

Which CDS regional site serves us? Has our SAU assumed preschool child-find and FAPE responsibility? Who owns each action now and on the third birthday? When are the conference, evaluation, eligibility, and IEP meetings? Where will records and equipment go? Which placement and transportation are proposed? How will AAC, health, feeding, and mobility supports continue? Which complaint or escalation route applies on the date of a missed duty?

A final control checklist

Before the next Maine transition event, confirm the birthday, sending contact, receiving contacts, IFSP steps, notification, family choices, consent, records, conference, evaluation, eligibility or enrollment, plan document, setting, weekly schedule, communication access, health and safety supports, transportation, last Part C date, first receiving-service date, unresolved tasks, escalation route, and post-start review. Assign every open task one accountable owner and one next date. Show counts beside percentages.

Build a Maine owner-by-date transfer table

Build proof around the state-specific handoff and the actual receiving site. Maine Department of Education, FAPE in Early Childhood Special Education supplies the primary Maine framework for this guide. List child find, evaluation, eligibility, IEP development, placement, transportation, assistive technology, summer contact, service delivery, and record custody as separate duties. For every relevant date, name CDS or the SAU as the current owner and retain the written source. Add transfer date, sending contact, receiving contact, file inventory, receipt, unresolved item, and the office responsible after the handoff. Close a tracker row only with the dated notice, consent, receipt, report, eligibility record, plan, enrollment decision, or start evidence that matches its purpose. A scheduled meeting remains in progress until the family receives its result.

Index every cross-system record by title, author, date, purpose, family authorization, sender, recipient, delivery date, receipt confirmation, correction, and next action. Keep earlier versions when they explain a decision and mark the copy the receiving team currently uses. Name one contact for the CDS and Early Intervention for ME coordinator and another for the school administrative unit or current CDS preschool owner. Ask the receiving contact to identify unreadable pages, stale health information, missing attachments, and new evaluation questions before the next decision meeting.

Test the Maine handoff before FAPE ownership changes

Walk through the actual preschool site, summer calendar, bus route, assistive technology and repair, AAC, feeding or medication procedures, staffing, therapies, child care, family work, and any service that crosses the CDS-to-SAU responsibility date. 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 program becomes workable when those connections have names, dates, and evidence.

Prepare a named summer contact, transportation alternative, equipment and repair owner, current health and communication record, and joint CDS-SAU escalation route for a duty that remains disputed. Record travel duration, waiting, an inaccessible step, missing material, communication breakdown, fatigue, or an unanswered question found during rehearsal. Assign every correction to an office or person able to act, then retest the highest-impact condition. The backup should preserve safe care, reliable communication, necessary equipment, and one person who can coordinate the next decision.

Recover a late or conflicting Maine 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. CDS remains the Part C doorway and owns its transition work. Preschool child-find and FAPE duties move to SAUs in phases. Ask CDS and the resident SAU to reconcile any conflicting ownership answer in one written response that identifies the child, duty, controlling date, current owner, receiving contact, and next action. Ask the responsible system for its current procedural-safeguard, complaint, mediation, or review information when the concern remains unresolved. Retain conflicting answers until the responsible offices reconcile them.

Contingency planning should identify real care and support without predicting a legal outcome. Ask the CDS and Early Intervention for ME coordinator, school administrative unit or current CDS preschool owner, 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. That gives the next meeting a concrete problem while preserving each system's authority.

Review the first ten and thirty days in Maine

Mae's family begins the review with 15 of 18 transition duties have an owner and handoff date; the assistive-technology transfer, bus authorization, and summer contact remain active until each has a decision and implementation proof. During the first ten days, check whether the office named before the transfer actually delivered the service, Mae's equipment and transportation moved with the record, and no duty disappeared between the CDS and SAU calendars. Describe each observation with the routine, support, child's response, and practical impact. This record helps the receiving team preserve effective supports and investigate repeated access problems.

At the Maine 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 a 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 Maine 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, contacts, and capacity can change. Verify the operative source and assigned owner with the CDS and Early Intervention for ME coordinator and school administrative unit or current CDS preschool owner; 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.