Inservice Training in Family Assessment and Goal- Setting For Early Interventionists: Outcomes and Issues

Public Law 99-457 mandates that early interventionists working with handicapped infants write an Individualized Family Service Plan. Most early Interventionists, however, have insufficient preservice training in working with families. This article evaluates the effects of inservice training in family assessment and collaborative goal-setting based on the Family-Focused Intervention model. The training increased interventionists ’ use of family assessment tools and increased the proportion of family goals written as part of a comprehensive plan. The focused interview, a specific step in Family-Focused Intervention, significantly affected the goals ultimately specified. The study raises several important issues related to increasing a family focus in early intervention. These issues are discussed and directions for future research are suggested. 1 Since the passage of Public Law 94-142, special educators have been required to write an Individualized Educational Plan (IEP) for each handicapped student. The IEP must include the child’s present level of educational performance, annual goals and short-term objectives, special education and related services needed, a date for starting services and their anticipated duration, the amount of time the student will participate in the regular educational program, and annual evaluation procedures to determine whether objectives are met. Parents should be in-volved in developing the IEP, must agree to it prior to the initiation of services, and may exercise due process rights if they disagree with student placement or instructional goals. It is, however, a student-oriented doc-ument; the law does not indicate that the IEP ought to address family needs. The recent passage of Public Law 99-457 requires interventionists working with handi-capped infants to develop a written Individu-alized Family Service Plan (IFSP). The plan is to be developed by a multidisciplinary Preparation of this manuscript was supported in part b