Infant & Toddler

Connection of Virginia

March 2023 Update

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month

Renee Scholten, DD Support Coordinator at Harrisonburg-Rockingham shares her personal experience as a mother and support coordinator advocating for individuals with developmental disabilities. Learn More

PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY UPDATE

Did you Know?

The federal public health emergency in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic will end on May 11, 2023. Immediately upon the end of the public health emergency, we must follow new DMAS telehealth rules. The most important news is that the option to deliver early intervention services via telehealth is not ending.

Here the new requirements associated with telehealth that will go into effect when the public health emergency ends:

• Audio only services will no longer be allowed.
• Informed consent from the parent is necessary before using telehealth.
• Certain early intervention services must be provided in person, except in cases of documented exceptional circumstances, including to prevent a delay in timely intake, eligibility determination, assessment for service planning, IFSP development/review, or service delivery (emphasis added):
• The initial service visit (G codes) must be in-person with a member of the clinical team physically present. The service coordinator is considered a member of the clinical team.
• The initial assessment (T1023) must be in person with each assessing member of the clinical team physically present with the child

TRAC-IT NEWS

NEED TO KNOWS

Full Implementation of TRAC-IT:

Phase 2 (full implementation) of TRAC-IT will launch on December 11, 2023. Beginning on that date, all required data must be entered either directly in TRAC-IT or through an electronic health record (EHR) upload.  Between now and December 11, there will be a number of activities happening to prepare for full implementation. We will be sharing additional dates and details soon, including milestones you can expect over the next 9-1/2 months. 

We know that many of you are interested in details related to the EHR upload option. We have planned six months for EHR testing to make sure your upload files are working by December 11. Planning and support will begin well ahead of that testing period for those who are building EHR upload files. You also can expect to see details next month about the enhanced billing extracts, which will help you decide whether to pursue an EHR upload into TRAC-IT or use TRAC-IT as your primary early intervention record and extract the information you need for billing. 

Thank you for your patience as we completed the administrative steps necessary to support this next phase of TRAC-IT implementation. 

To update your discipline-specific license expiration date in TRAC-IT:



1. Under User Management, click My Information. Your account information will become visible.
2. Under your name, click Update User and the fields will become editable
3. Scroll until you view your certifications. For the certification with the expiring license, click on the certification row or the blue arrow. A pop-up window with the certification information will appear
4. Click edit and some of the fields are editable.
5. Scroll to the Qualifications and click on the row or the blue arrow of the expiring license information. A pop up window will appear with the qualifications.
6. Click edit and you can edit the expiration date
7. CLICK SAVE after updating the expiration date
8. CLICK SAVE at each pop-up window – Qualifications, Certifications, your main account page

Insurance Workflow Resources:

As a reminder, resources are available to support the new insurance workflow:

• A 17-minute video demonstration of the new process is available on our website.
• The new flow is available in the Sandbox for practice.
• An updated TRAC-IT user manual and a new Quick Reference Card for the insurance workflow are posted in the Help links in TRAC-IT.

TRAC-IT SUPPORT:

• EMAIL: VATRACITsupport@ssg-llc.com
• PHONE: (804) 508-7229

FAMILY SURVEY

How can you help improve our return rate?

Tell families as you visit them in the first weeks in March that they should expect an email or flier announcing the survey and encourage them to participate.

Timelines for conducting the 2023 Family Survey are as follows: 

Flyers begin mailing - 3/1 

Samples for the fliers, survey and cover letter can be found on our website on this page https://www.itcva.online/itcva-resource-library under Family Survey. 

Wave 1 begin mailing - 3/29-4/5 

For families who have included their email address, the survey will be emailed directly to them. For the rest of the families the survey will be mailed to the address supplied.  Languages included in this years survey include Arabic, Mandarin, Farsi, Korean, Urdu and Vietnamese languages. 

Wave 2 begin mailing - 4/19-4/23 

Families who did not respond to the first round of surveys will receive a second copy of the survey to increase the overall response rate. 

Calls begin to localities with less than 15 completes - 5/14-5/21 

These calls are intended to increase each systems survey response to have a representative sample.

Thank you for helping us make this the survey with the

highest response rate ever!

SUPPORTING SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL SKILLS

SSIP Update

The SSIP workgroup for Broad Improvement Strategies 1 and 2 met on February 22nd to continue our discussion of social-emotional screening and assessment tools. The notes for the meeting can be found on our website at State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) — Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia (itcva.online)

• Three new workgroups are beginning to meet. These groups will focus on exploring screening or assessing for other factors that impact infants’ and toddlers’ social-emotional development, developing an implementation plan to support use of the Pyramid Model and building reflective supervision capacity. Look for these meeting notes to be posted on our website.

Parents also need to feel rested in order to be nurturing and responsive to their growing and active young children. This first installment of the Making Life Easier series provides a few proven tips for making bedtimes and naptimes easier for both parents and children. Also includes a handy tip card for quick reference.

Making Life Easier: Bedtime and Naptime

PROFFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

A GEM YOU MIGHT

HAVE FORGOTTEN



Transition Resources

Writing Social and Emotional Goals to Promote Family Engagement – A Two Part Archived Webinar

WHAT DID

YOU MISS?

Talks on Tuesdays – We matter Too: Self Care Strategies for All Practitioners

WHAT'S COMING

UP NEXT?

Register Now for Talks on Tuesdays – Unseen, but in Need: Identifying Girls with ASD in EI

Wrightslaw Special Education Law and Advocacy Training 

APRIL 11 & 12, 2023

Speaker Pete Wright, Esq. will present on:

• Special education law, rights, and responsibilities;
• Tests and measurements for progress and regression;
• Smart IEPs;
• Introduction to strategies for effective advocacy;

And more!

See flyer for registration details.

TRANSITION

UPCOMING WEBINAR

Transition in Virginia:

Part C to Part B



Are you a new LSM, a new service coordinator or would you like to know more about collaborating with Part B to support transition? Join us for this upcoming webinar.

Considerations for a Smooth and Timely Transition from Part C to Part B – Webinar

This webinar, presented by the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Department of Education, will provide information about the transition from Early Intervention Services (Part C) to Early Childhood Special Education (Part B). The webinar will discuss regulations, decisions to be determined locally, program eligibility, as well as tips for how the two systems can collaborate to support families. This webinar will be recorded and shared with all registrants. ·

Webinar: Considerations for a Smooth and Timely Transition from

Part C to Part B

Date: March 9, 12:00 p.m.

Register

RESOURCES

“Learn the Signs. Act Early” Update (February 2023)

If you have any questions about the CDC’s “Learn the Signs. Act Early” resources, please contact:

Deana Buck, Virginia’s Act Early Ambassador

deanabuck@gmail.com

(804) 405-9064

TEACHCVI is a partnership that aims to create collaborative tools for teachers and health care professionals. It is meant to build a bridge between teachers/educators and health care professionals so they can work together to benefit the target group: children with Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI). 

CVI Now: Early Intervention Series

Series speaks to your whole experience as a new CVI parent. It offers practical knowledge, science-backed information, and emotional insight.

Every individual with CVI has a right to life-changing access. Learn about assessment and how to provide a multi-sensory approach to learning for children with CVI. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for CVI, but there is a wide range of promising practices that meet the unique needs of children with CVI.

For resources and tools to screen for Cerebral/Cortical Visual Impairment, which if diagnosed early will enable a baby to receive supports from a vision specialist. Visual supports would include how to present materials including spoon for feeding, locating objects to crawl towards, etc. see here: https://www.teachcvi.net/

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Local early intervention system managers (LSMs) or their designees, or directors of programs that contract with one or more local early intervention systems in Virginia, are invited to submit employment opportunities for posting.



• ITC Hampton-Newport News | Service Coordinator | Posted 2023-01-18 | LINK
• ITC Fairfax-Falls Church | Service Coordination Supervisor (Early Intervention Supervisor) | Posted 2023-01-10 | LINK
• ITC Rappahannock-Rapidan | Early Intervention Professional | Posted 2022-12-07 | PDF

ITCVA RESOUCES

For questions about certification of practitioners, contact David Mills • 804-317-7776

For questions related to completing the online application, contact VATRACITsupport@ssg-llc.com or from 8AM-5PM ET by calling 804-508-7229.

Infant & Toddler Connection of Virginia is part of the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services

https://www.itcva.online/itcva-staff-1

1220 Bank Street, 9th Floor, P.O. Box 1797, Richmond, Virginia 23219-1797

Main Office: (804) 786-3710 • Main Fax: (804) 371-7959

DMAS RESOUCES