New Hampshire FCESS 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.

Run the LEA and area-agency routes separately

New Hampshire's current He-M 500 rules require transition planning and also address area-agency eligibility for services beyond age three. The current Ed 1100 rules assign the LEA's evaluation, eligibility, IEP, and interagency duties. Record the FCESS program, area agency, resident LEA, evaluation contacts, and community programs. Each route needs its own consent, criteria, decision, and start evidence.

Build one age-three control calendar

He-M 510.09 places the transition-plan meeting between 27 and 32 months for a child eligible before 33 months and gives the family seven calendar days to object in writing to education notification after receiving the required information. Track the plan, objection window, notification or alternate route, conference, LEA evaluation consent, assessments, eligibility, IEP, area-agency determination when relevant, final FCESS date, and first receiving service. The federal Part C transition rule provides the shared baseline for notification, late referral, conferences, and IFSP transition steps. Use New Hampshire'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 New Hampshire FCESS transition can touch New Hampshire Family Centered Early Supports and 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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.

Protect birthday timing while parallel decisions are pending

Ed 1105.04 requires an eligible child's IEP to be developed and implemented by the third birthday, including late-spring, summer, and early-fall birthdays. The area agency separately initiates a developmental-services determination before age three when that route applies. Do not wait for one decision before asking the other owner to meet its timeline. Share records only under the applicable authority and track both results.

A fictional New Hampshire handoff

Ben's family follows two eligibility routes with nine controls each. The LEA route has eight complete and the area-agency route has six, for 14 of 18, or 77.8% combined completeness. The family reports the denominators separately because the timely IEP does not resolve area-agency eligibility, and the area-agency decision does not determine school placement.

Questions for the next transition meeting

Which FCESS program, area agency, and LEA own the case? When was the transition plan developed? When did the seven-day notification-objection period begin? Was the LEA notified? When are evaluation, eligibility, and IEP meetings? Is an age-three area-agency determination appropriate? Which records can each system receive? How will transportation, AAC, health, feeding, and mobility supports begin? Which rule or safeguard fits each disputed action?

A final control checklist

Before the next New Hampshire 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.

Run New Hampshire's LEA and area-agency evidence in parallel

Build proof around the state-specific handoff and the actual receiving site. New Hampshire Administrative Rules, He-M 500 supplies the primary New Hampshire framework for this guide. Create separate tracker groups for the FCESS transition plan, seven-day notification-objection period, education notice, conference, LEA evaluation consent, assessments, school eligibility, IEP, area-agency referral and eligibility, final FCESS service, and first receiving supports. Show separate consent, criteria, decision owner, notice, start date, and safeguard for each route. 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 FCESS service coordinator and area agency and another for the resident local education agency. Ask the receiving contact to identify unreadable pages, stale health information, missing attachments, and new evaluation questions before the next decision meeting.

Test both New Hampshire routes without mixing decisions

Walk through the IEP setting, any area-agency supports, service providers, transportation, AAC, medication and feeding supports, mobility, summer or early-fall birthday calendar, child care, clinical therapy, family work, and any records shared under different authorities. 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 usable school day and care plan while area-agency eligibility remains pending, plus named contacts, communication access, transportation, health supports, and separate escalation routes. 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 New Hampshire 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. FCESS owns its transition plan, notification process, and Part C exit. The LEA owns evaluation, eligibility, IEP, and birthday-specific implementation. The area agency owns its developmental-services decision. Ask each owner to meet its timeline while the other route remains pending, and protect records under the authority that applies to that route. 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 FCESS service coordinator and area agency, resident 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. That gives the next meeting a concrete problem while preserving each system's authority.

Review the first ten and thirty days in New Hampshire

Ben's family begins the review with 14 of 18 controls are complete across two separately reported routes; the one LEA control and three area-agency controls remain active until each has a decision and implementation proof. During the first ten days, check whether the IEP began on the child-specific date, the area-agency case retained its own status, Ben's communication and transportation worked, and neither route was reported as complete because the other made a decision. 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 New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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 FCESS service coordinator and area agency and resident 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.