Research indicates that 15 to 17 percent of children should qualify for Early Intervention (Boyle et al., 2011). However, in 2009 only 2.67 percent of children received services (Macy, Marks, & Towle, 2014). Rosenberg, Zhang, and Robinson (2008) uncovered racial disparities in which eligible African American children were found to be five times less likely to receive services. In Addition, they found that children from homeless families are also underserved in Birth to Three programs. Current programs are short of qualified staff, as well as funds, leading to policies in which all children with delays or disabilities are not provided with services (Hebbeler et al., 2007). Hebbeler et al. (2007) reported that local staff inconsistently utilized the eligibility categories thus resulting in unequal entry into services.
The Early Intervention program has an important
purpose. Proper execution, can
significantly stem and/or reduce the cycle of poverty. Moreover, it also provides children an equal
opportunity to develop the brain architecture needed in order to become an
independent and a productive member of society.
Without this service, the cycle of poverty, achievement gap, and limited
access to upward mobility will remain stagnant and/or continue to grow.
In
order to provide the funding required to provide mandated services to all
families who qualify, the budget for Early Intervention needs to be
increased. Thus, this issue should be
sent forth to the appropriate Congressional Budgetary Committee for resolution. Secondly, as the states have mismanaged the
program resulting in not all families gaining access, nor all families
qualifying for services, state execution should be revoked with the federal
government taking over in supplying services.
Alternatively, state execution of the program could remain in place
however program execution should be clearly defined (written by a subcommittee)
in order that all families receive equal services despite the state in which
they reside.
Failure to comply with mandated policy should be met
with restrictions/forfeitures on state funds in other areas such as highway
infrastructure and other state projects fueled with federal dollars. Those funds will be utilized to bring in a
federal task force to implement the state program which adheres to the federal
policy. The federal task force will
remain active until personnel in the state program have been properly trained
to carry out the requirements of the program at which time the program will
then be turned back over to state control.
In order to accomplish these proposals, a committee of
early childhood professionals and allies would need to be assembled. Useful allies would include politicians,
accountants, lawyers, and board members or officers of early childhood
organizations. Working together, this
partnership can advocate for change to Early Intervention legislation.
To advocate for change, public support would be needed. For an issue to be seriously considered and
taken on by politicians, they need to see that their constituents are aware of
and demand action on the issue.
Therefore, a useful social media tool to project this message to the
general public would be Facebook. Facebook has many benefits. It would be free to use thereby saving
important funds for other uses.
Additionally, Facebook messages can spread quickly, with the audience
choosing to share posts and spreading the message further and faster. Another benefit is that Facebook is also
interactive in that the audience can comment and ask questions on posts and about
the advocacy group. Ironically, this can
also be considered as a challenge as it may be time consuming responding to
questions and posts. Moreover, persons
may make inappropriate comments and/or challenge the message. Lastly, Facebook has an advantage in that it
can also have audience with politicians.
Indeed, they are just as likely to see our message as the general public
as they benefit in keeping abreast of issue trends. Moreover, the statistics generated through the
Facebook page can be used as evidence of public support to get politicians on
board with the cause.
Another useful social media tool would be Twitter. This tool would also reach the general public
and politicians alike. One downside with
Twitter is that to grow in followers, you do need to spend time following
others. This will up the activity level
of the account and make one more relevant.
Patel, (2015) warns that if one follows too many people, but only has a
few followers, it appears desperate.
Therefore, Patel (2015) recommends having a close number between
followers and followed.
References
Boyle, C. A., Boulet, S.,
Schieve, L. A., Cohen, R. A., Blumberg, S. J.,
Yeargin-Allsopp, M., … Kogan, M. D. (2011). Trends in the
prevalence of developmental disabilities in US children, 1997-2008. PEDIATRICS, 127(6), 1034-1042.
doi:10.1542/peds.2010-2989
Hebbeler, K.,
Spiker, D., Bailey, D., Scarborough, A., Mallik, S.,
Simeonsson, R., … Singer, M. (2007). Early intervention for infants
and toddlers with disabilities and their families: participants, services, and
outcomes. Retrieved from https://www.sri.com/sites/default/files/publications/neils_finalreport_200702.pdf
Macy, M., Marks, K., & Towle, A. (2014).
Missed, misused, or mismanaged: Improving early detection systems to optimize
child outcomes. Topics in
Early Childhood Special Education, 34(2),
94-105. doi:10.1177/0271121414525997
Patel, N. (n.d.). How to grow your personal brand on
twitter in only 10 minutes a day. Retrieved from
http://marketingland.com/how-to-grow-your-personal-brand-on-twitter-in-only-10-minutes-a-day-121514
Rosenberg, S. A.,
Zhang, D., & Robinson, C. C. (2008). Prevalence of
developmental delays and participation in early intervention services for young
children. PEDIATRICS,121(6), e1503-e1509. doi:10.1542/peds.2007-1680
Darren you are right! Fb is definitely interactive and I believe that it will be extremely beneficial for your purpose. This is an area that I too felt would be a great area to focus on for my focus which was very similar to your own. As far as twitter, I do believe that twitter can be beneficial, once I figure out how to wholesomely use it. I have used almost every other social media site but have not quite gotten the gist of Twitter.
ReplyDeleteHey Darren:
ReplyDeleteThese are two good choices for you to share your policy issue on. I also like the interactive feature of Facebook. The main downfall will be individuals not expressing themselves in a respectful manner. Best Wishes!
Darren,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciated the introduction and information on the policy change you are proposing. You mention that politicians need evidence of public awareness and a demand for the proposed change in order to seriously consider adopting policy changes. With that being said, who is your true audience? The constituents or the politicians? In what ways would you use your social media choices to reach both audiences?
They are both equally the audience.
DeleteHi Darren,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your very enlightening introduction to your post on the social media. Face book and Twitter are the two most commonly used for disseminating information and I believe this will be great medium for disseminating information on promoting the Early Intervention program. Good luck and great job