Vermont CIS/EI to EEE: Family Transition Guide

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

Connect the One Plan to the LEA decision

Vermont's special education procedures manual describes the CIS/EI-to-Part B process, the LEA's eligibility role, and Vermont Form 6B as a family information and consent tool completed over the transition period. The current DCF guidance directory identifies live Children's Integrated Services materials. Record the regional CIS/EI coordinator, resident LEA, EEE contact, and current forms.

Build one age-three control calendar

Vermont's transition resource connects families to the state guide, EEE resources, sample IEP, and rules. Track the IFSP or One Plan transition steps, Child Find transmission, conference, consent for other records, LEA evaluation consent, assessments, eligibility, Form 6B, IEP, placement, final CIS/EI service, and first EEE service. Ask the LEA to state the age-three implementation date in writing. The federal Part C transition rule provides the shared baseline for notification, late referral, conferences, and IFSP transition steps. Use Vermont'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 Vermont CIS/EI transition can touch Vermont Children's Integrated Services/Early Intervention, 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 Vermont 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 Vermont 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 Vermont 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.

Separate Child Find information from consented records

Vermont's special education rules require confirmation that Child Find information was transmitted to the LEA and state offices, while transmission of evaluations, assessments, and the most recent IFSP or One Plan requires written parental consent. Ask for an itemized disclosure record: authority, document, recipient, date, and confirmation. Do not treat one transmission as permission for every record.

A fictional Vermont handoff

Lena's family inventories nine possible disclosures. Three are documented as Child Find information, four are authorized by written consent, and two remain undecided. Evidence completeness is 7 of 9, or 77.8%. The family asks which authority applies before sending the remaining evaluation and therapy note.

Questions for the next transition meeting

Who is our regional CIS/EI coordinator, LEA, and EEE contact? What transition steps are in the IFSP or One Plan? Which Child Find information was transmitted? Which other records have written consent? How is Form 6B being completed? When are evaluation, eligibility, and IEP meetings? How will communication, feeding, health, mobility, sensory, and transportation supports start? Which CIS/EI or Part B safeguard applies?

A final control checklist

Before the next Vermont 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.

Create a Vermont disclosure log before sending the One Plan

Build proof around the state-specific handoff and actual receiving site. Vermont Agency of Education, CIS/EI to ECSE Transition supplies the primary Vermont framework for this guide. Inventory Child Find information, IFSP or One Plan, evaluations, therapy notes, progress records, health information, communication summary, and every other proposed disclosure. For each item, record the governing authority, written consent when required, purpose, recipient, sent date, receipt, correction, and current status. Keep Child Find transmission distinct from other records that need parental consent. Close a row only with the dated notice, consent, receipt, report, decision, plan, or start evidence that matches its purpose. A scheduled meeting stays in progress until the family receives its result.

Index every 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 currently in use. Name one contact for the CIS/EI coordinator and another for the local education agency EEE team. Ask the receiver to identify unreadable pages, missing attachments, stale health information, and new evaluation questions before the next decision meeting.

Test Vermont EEE access with the authorized record set

Walk the EEE evaluation and preschool routines with the actual authorized information. Check Form 6B, AAC and partner response, feeding or medication support, mobility, sensory access, transportation, child care, therapy, family work, and the first day. Ask the LEA which record it used for each evaluation or implementation decision. 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 minimum necessary authorized record, accessible communication summary, current health page, transport contact, safe care plan, and written decision about any disclosure still undecided. 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 Vermont 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. CIS/EI owns the transition steps in the IFSP or One Plan, Child Find transmission, conference coordination, consented record handoff, and Part C exit. The LEA alone owns EEE evaluation, eligibility, Form 6B work, IEP, placement, and implementation. Ask the appropriate owner to resolve a missing record or delayed decision without expanding another disclosure's scope. Ask for the 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 CIS/EI coordinator, local education agency EEE team, 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 each system's authority.

Review the first ten and thirty days in Vermont

Lena's family begins the review with 7 of 9 possible disclosures have a documented authority and status; the evaluation and therapy note disclosure decisions remain active until each has decision and implementation proof. During the first ten days, check whether the LEA used only the authorized records, Lena received the written EEE decision, and communication, transport, and health supports appeared in the implemented setting. Describe each observation with the routine, support, child's response, and practical impact. The receiving team can then preserve effective supports and investigate repeated access problems.

At the Vermont day-30 review, compare the actual week with the accepted IFSP, IEP, enrollment plan, waiver status, authorization, or family schedule. Check attendance, delivered services, location, transportation, communication, equipment, health and safety procedures, provider coordination, family workload, and the child's participation or recovery. Send a gap between the written plan and delivered support to the local education agency EEE team or other office that can correct it and assign a response date. Record strengths beside gaps because a successful Vermont partner or routine tells the team what to preserve.

Limits and immediate next steps for Vermont 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 CIS/EI coordinator and local education agency EEE team; seek qualified educational, legal, clinical, or benefits advice for disputed or high-impact questions.

Next, place the third birthday and last current-service date on the calendar. List every school, community, waiver, 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, usable first-day test, and post-start review date.