West Virginia Birth to Three 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.

Build the county-school route from the current program doorway

West Virginia's current Birth to Three overview identifies the statewide Part C system, regional referral route, and no-cost family-centered services for eligible children under three. The state family resource explains that the IFSP team supports transition and that county schools explain Part B eligibility. Record the service coordinator, county-school contact, community options, and receipt dates.

Build one age-three control calendar

Track the IFSP transition plan, county-school notification or referral, conference, disclosure choices, evaluation consent, assessments, eligibility, IEP, placement, community applications, final Birth to Three service, and first new service. Ask the school system for its current evaluation and age-three implementation dates. Use child-specific notices when older family resources and current agency names differ. The federal Part C transition rule provides the shared baseline for notification, late referral, conferences, and IFSP transition steps. Use West Virginia'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 West Virginia Birth to Three transition can touch West Virginia Birth to Three, 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 West Virginia 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 West Virginia 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 West Virginia 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.

Keep county-school and IDDW decisions independent

West Virginia's current IDDW program identifies a Medicaid waiver route beginning at age three for people who meet its criteria. That decision does not establish school eligibility, an IEP, or school placement; the school decision does not establish waiver eligibility or availability. WVDE school guidance describes the Part B transition route. Run both pathways in parallel when relevant.

A fictional West Virginia handoff

Mason's family tracks two routes with eight controls each. The county-school route has seven complete and the IDDW route has four, for 11 of 16, or 68.8% combined completion. The family keeps the routes separate because a signed IEP does not close the waiver application, and a waiver decision does not identify the preschool day.

Questions for the next transition meeting

Who is our Birth to Three coordinator and county-school contact? When are the conference and school evaluation? Which records and consent apply? When will school eligibility and any IEP be decided? Is an IDDW referral appropriate, and who owns it? What are the separate decision and start dates? How will AAC, feeding, medication, mobility, toileting, and transportation work? Which school, Part C, or Medicaid appeal route fits each concern?

A final control checklist

Before the next West Virginia 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.

Score West Virginia school and IDDW routes separately

Build proof around the state-specific handoff and actual receiving site. West Virginia Birth to Three, Program Overview supplies the primary West Virginia framework for this guide. Create separate eight-control groups for county-school preschool and IDDW. Track referral, criteria, consent, evaluation, decision, plan document, provider or setting, and start date under the correct owner. Add the IFSP transition plan, conference, disclosure choices, final Birth to Three service, and first receiving services. A signed IEP cannot close the waiver application, and a waiver result cannot identify the school placement. 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 Birth to Three service coordinator and another for the county school system and IDDW program. Ask the receiver to identify unreadable pages, missing attachments, stale health information, and new evaluation questions before the next decision meeting.

Test the West Virginia preschool week while waiver work continues

Walk the county preschool day and any proposed IDDW supports separately. Check provider, schedule, transportation, AAC, feeding or medication support, mobility, toileting, sensory needs, child care, clinical therapy, family work, and coordination between systems. Keep only confirmed supports in the birthday-week fallback. 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 preschool and care schedule, communication and health access, transportation, a county-school contact, and a separate IDDW case contact while either decision remains pending. 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 West Virginia 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. Birth to Three owns its transition plan and exit coordination. The county school owns Part B evaluation, eligibility, IEP, and preschool implementation. The IDDW program owns waiver eligibility and availability. Escalate within the route that can issue the missing decision and retain the other route's completed evidence. 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 Birth to Three service coordinator, county school system and IDDW program, 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 West Virginia

Mason's family begins the review with 11 of 16 controls are complete across two separately scored routes; the one county-school control and four IDDW controls remain active until each has decision and implementation proof. During the first ten days, check whether the IEP became a usable preschool day, Mason's IDDW case retained its own status, and neither route borrowed the other's decision or denominator. 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 West Virginia 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 county school system and IDDW program or other office that can correct it and assign a response date. Record strengths beside gaps because a successful West Virginia partner or routine tells the team what to preserve.

Limits and immediate next steps for West Virginia 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 Birth to Three service coordinator and county school system and IDDW program; 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.