Background
First Connections is a Little Rock-based agency within the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE), Division of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), Office of Special Education (OSE) that provides early intervention support and services to parents and other caregivers of program-eligible children from birth to three years old. First Connections also provides technical assistance to early intervention professionals to meet program certification requirements, offers ongoing professional development, and supports providers in applying evidence-based practices in their work with families.
First Connections employs only two full-time technical assistance and training professionals to support a diverse group of early intervention professionals spread across the state. With such a small team and such a big mission, First Connections needed a better way to provide certification training, ongoing professional development, and technical assistance beyond in-person training workshops. The program also needed more effective ways to track completion and collect data on the effectiveness of their technical assistance and training. Last, early interventionists working toward certification needed more flexibility in when and how they accessed training while they managed full caseloads.
These challenges led First Connections to search for a comprehensive online platform to help them manage and deliver technical assistance. In particular, First Connections wanted a solution to enable early intervention professionals to navigate certification requirements at their own pace. They also wanted an intuitive, simple-to-navigate platform to accommodate different technological abilities.
The goal: Ensure that all early intervention professionals, regardless of their location or schedule, have equitable access to essential resources and support opportunities.
The Solution
First Connections was excited to discover TORSH Talent, a HIPAA-secure online platform that streamlines technical assistance and certification processes for staff in early intervention programs. With TORSH’s extensive expertise in supporting early intervention and care programs, First Connections found an ally to help them meet their goals and overcome obstacles.
Using TORSH Talent’s advanced suite of tools, First Connections has successfully launched a robust, accessible online environment for practitioners to tap into technical assistance services that support their practices. First Connections immediately began using TORSH Talent to:
- Offer on-demand, asynchronous courses
- Track completion of certification requirements
- Offer a variety of on-demand technical assistance modules to support in-service development of
practitioner’s knowledge, abilities, and skills - Offer Learning Paths tailored to the core competencies needed for specific roles
Core Competencies For Early Interventionists:
- Teaching families their IDEA rights in the context of the Part C Program process;
- Completing the Child Outcomes Summary (COS) rating as a team with the family using the state-approved tool
- Determining Part C Program Eligibility as a team with the family
- Developing a family-centered Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) around typical routines, child and family interests, and family priorities and concerns
- Selecting the Part C service necessary to reach the goals and objectives on the IFSP
Core Competencies For Therapists:
- Evaluation practices and sharing results of evaluations in the evaluation report within Part C Program guidelines and timelines
- Providing IFSP services within typical child and family activities to meet Natural Environment requirements
- Documenting Home and Community Visits (service sessions) in ways that describe the parent or caregiver participation
With its expanded reporting on practitioner engagement with content, TORSH Talent also enables First Connections to assess the effectiveness of their courses and course content in ways that the program was unable to do previously with in-person workshops or even in live webinars.
“The TORSH system provides an online platform to coordinate a variety of technical assistance activities and offer content and ongoing certification training courses to meet the needs of home visitors around their schedules.”
Tracy Turner
Part C Coordinator
The Arkansas Department of Education, Division of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education
Initial Successes
With the comprehensive technical assistance and certification platform now fully operational within TORSH Talent, early intervention professionals are successfully engaging in coursework that historically had limited offerings. The result is that the statewide network of early intervention professionals are obtaining certification credentials in a timely manner with minimal support. And so far, feedback from in-the-field professionals about the experience has been positive.
First Connections is seeing significant improvements to both engagement and satisfaction levels among early intervention professionals, who appreciate the flexibility offered by TORSH Talent to access technical assistance on their schedules and supportive content specific to their needs. The collaboration between First Connections and TORSH has also yielded improved data collection, collaboration, and communication among stakeholders through the use of reporting tools.
As their partnership with TORSH progresses, First Connections anticipates a notable improvement in the effectiveness of their technical assistance offerings. Ultimately, bettering this support will also strengthen the practices that early intervention professionals leverage to serve families and children across the state.
What’s Next
The next step for First Connections is to work with TORSH to develop internal reports that group leaders can use to track their Provider Program staff’s completion of certification and annual professional development hours to further engage users. Additionally, First Connections plans to leverage TORSH Talent’s data collection capabilities to enhance the fidelity of technical assistance implementation and ongoing quality improvement. The program anticipates additional growth for practitioners and transformational practice improvements across the state through this collaboration.
