Maryland Infants and Toddlers Transition: Extended IFSP or IEP

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

Understand Maryland's age-three choice

Maryland's program page explains that an eligible family may remain on an Extended IFSP beyond age three or begin preschool special education through an IEP. This choice occurs after the local school system determines preschool eligibility. Compare the daily setting, family coaching, service schedule, school-calendar implications, transportation, communication access, and next transition date. Ask the IFSP team to document how each option would work for this child rather than discussing only program labels.

Build the calendar from the third birthday

Maryland's transition regulation places transition outcomes at the IFSP meeting closest to the second birthday and the family-approved planning meeting between 90 days and nine months before the third birthday. Track notification, school participation, evaluation consent, assessment, eligibility, IEP development, Extended IFSP explanation, family election, final service dates, and implementation. Maryland's family guides can help the household prepare each decision. 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 Maryland Infants and Toddlers 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 Maryland 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 Maryland 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 Maryland 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.

Separate eligibility from the family election

School eligibility opens the preschool special education path; it does not choose the delivery document for the family. Ask when the Extended IFSP consent is due, how long the option may continue, how a later switch to an IEP works, and which services or settings would change. If the child is ineligible for preschool special education, request the evaluation report, eligibility basis, safeguards, and help connecting with suitable community services.

A fictional Maryland transition

Harper's family scores five decision domains for both paths: communication access, daily setting, caregiver coaching, transportation, and timing. The Extended IFSP route has verified answers in 5 of 5 domains. The IEP route has 3 of 5, with transportation and AAC partner training still open. These counts organize questions; they do not select the plan. The family chooses after reviewing the completed proposals and the child's preferences.

Questions for the next meeting

What transition outcomes are on the IFSP? When is the planning meeting? Has the school system completed eligibility? What would services look like under each document? When must we choose? Can we later move from an Extended IFSP to an IEP? Which calendar and transportation rules apply? How will AAC, health, sensory, and family-language supports work? Which safeguards apply to the Part C step, eligibility decision, or IEP proposal we question?

A final family checklist

For the next Maryland 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.

Build two complete Maryland service-route records

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. Maryland COMAR 13A.13.01.09, Transition supplies the state framework for this Maryland transition. After preschool eligibility, create one route record for the Extended IFSP and another for the IEP. Each should show services, setting, frequency, school or program calendar, transportation, family coaching, communication access, consent, start date, later transition point, and the written proposal the family reviewed. 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 Maryland handoff record should name one contact for the local Infants and Toddlers Program and another for the local school system. Ask the receiving contact to identify unreadable pages, missing attachments, stale health information, or additional evaluation questions while there is still time to respond.

Compare the Extended IFSP and IEP in daily practice

Walk through arrival and departure, caregiver coaching, classroom or community setting, transportation, AAC partner training, sensory and health supports, therapy time, school-calendar gaps, and the family's work and care schedule. 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 Maryland fallback, prepare a dated implementation plan for the chosen document plus the local contact who can explain a later switch, service gap, or disputed proposal. 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 Maryland 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. The local lead agency answers IFSP transition and Extended IFSP process questions. The local school system owns preschool eligibility and IEP actions. Ask which procedural safeguard applies to the exact pending step, because eligibility, family election, and implementation are separate decisions. 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 local Infants and Toddlers Program, local school system, 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 Maryland

Harper's five decision domains compared across two eligible service routes; the IEP transportation and AAC partner-training answers stay open until the family has both a decision and implementation evidence. During the first ten days, review whether the chosen document produces the described daily setting, Harper's communication partners are prepared, and transportation and calendar coverage match the family's accepted route. 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 Maryland 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 local school system 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 Maryland 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 local Infants and Toddlers Program and local school system; 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.