Amended in Assembly July 9, 2015

Amended in Assembly June 24, 2015

California Legislature—2015–16 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 77

Introduced by Assembly Member Mark Stone

(Coauthors: Assembly Members Gatto begin delete and Lackey end delete begin insert , Lackey, Achadjian, Alejo, Atkins, Baker, Bigelow, Bloom, Bonilla, Bonta, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau, Chávez, Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd, Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia, Eduardo Garcia, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray, Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones, Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low, Maienschein, Mathis, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Mullin, Nazarian, Obernolte, O’Donnell, Olsen, Perea, Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Steinorth, Thurmond, Ting, Waldron, Weber, Wilk, Williams, and Wood end insert )

(Coauthors: Senators Beall, Monning, Nguyen, Pavley, and Vidak)

May 20, 2015

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 77—Relative to California Early Intervention Services Act.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 77, as amended, Mark Stone. California Early Intervention Services Act.

This measure would recognize that every child who needs comprehensive health and early intervention services and supports in order to achieve his or her developmental potential should have those services easily accessible, sufficient, responsive, timely, and of high quality. The measure would further urge the Legislature to leverage existing efforts and statutes to ensure an accountable, results-oriented, and coordinated network of resources in order to provide multidisciplinary early identification and intervention services and supports to California infants and toddlers.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The period between a child’s birth and third
birthday is a time of intense and ongoing development across the
cognitive, motor, language, and social-emotional domains; and

WHEREAS, Positive health and learning outcomes depend upon
children continually building new skills and abilities along a
developmental trajectory of incremental milestones that begins at
birth; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature passed Assembly Concurrent
Resolution 155 in 2014 in recognition that “[r]esearch over the
last two decades in the evolving fields of neuroscience, molecular
biology, public health, genomics, and epigenetics reveals that
experiences in the first few years of life build changes into the
biology of the human body that, in turn, influence the person’s
physical and mental health over his or her lifetime”; and

WHEREAS, Adversity during the early years can impair
development, and has a cumulative impact, with children exposed
to maltreatment and additional risk factors facing increased
likelihood of having one or more delays in their cognitive,
language, or emotional development; and

WHEREAS, Unaddressed developmental delays and disabilities
result in persistently impaired learning and health outcomes for
children; and

WHEREAS, It is estimated that one in four California children
have moderate or higher risk for a developmental delay, such as
speech or language impairment, and that nationally one in every
68 children were affected by autism spectrum disorder in 2014;
and

WHEREAS, Latino and African American children are more
likely to experience barriers in accessing early identification and
intervention services; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature has previously established through
the California Early Intervention Services Act, in Section 95001
of the Government Code, that “[t]here is a need to provide
appropriate early intervention services individually designed for
infants and toddlers ... who have disabilities or are at risk of having
disabilities, to enhance their development and to minimize the
potential for developmental delays”; and

WHEREAS, The California Early Intervention Services Act
additionally established that “[e]arly intervention services for
infants and toddlers with disabilities or who are at risk of having
disabilities represent an investment of resources, in that these
services reduce the ultimate costs to our society, by minimizing
the need for special education and related services in later school
years and . . . [that] maximize the potential of the individuals to
be effective in the context of daily life and activities”; and

WHEREAS, Early intervention services include targeted health
and education supports for infants and toddlers who have delays
or are at risk of having delays, in order to enhance their
development, improve school readiness, and minimize the potential
for later challenges; and

WHEREAS, The California Early Intervention Services Act
previously established that “the earlier intervention is started, the
greater is the ultimate cost-effectiveness and the higher is the
educational attainment and quality of life achieved by children
with disabilities”; and

WHEREAS, Experts like the American Academy of Pediatrics
recommend routine, regular, and formalized developmental and
behavioral screening for all infants and toddlers as the most
effective way of identifying children in need of supports and
services; and

WHEREAS, Fewer than one-third of California infants and
toddlers received the recommended developmental and behavioral
screenings according to 2011-2012 parent reported data; and

WHEREAS, Forty-one percent of parents report having one or
more concerns about their children’s physical, behavioral, or social
development; and

WHEREAS, Nearly three out of four California children with
special health care needs under three years of age do not receive
early intervention services they could benefit from, and the 2012
annual report for California’s Early Start program shows that it
serves fewer infants and toddlers with early intervention services
than the national average; and

WHEREAS, A system of universal developmental and
behavioral screenings should work hand in hand with a robust
early intervention system, and should be linked by facilitated
family-focused referral, care coordination, child-centered health
homes, and information-sharing mechanisms to guide and support
families while maintaining accountability; and

WHEREAS, The California Early Intervention Services Act
previously established that “the State Department of Developmental
Services, the State Department of Education, the State Department
of Health Care Services, and the State Department of Social
Services coordinate services to infants and toddlers with disabilities
and their families”; and

WHEREAS, The California Early Intervention Services Act
additionally established that “families be well informed, supported,
and respected as capable and collaborative decisionmakers
regarding services for their child”; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That every California child deserves periodic
formal assessment of his or her development for the purposes of
introducing supports and services if needed; and be it further

Resolved, That every child who needs supports in order to
achieve his or her developmental potential deserves that those
services be easily accessible, sufficient, responsive, timely, and
of high quality; and be it further

Resolved, That every parent or caregiver shall be fully engaged
and supported throughout early identification and intervention
processes; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature leverage existing efforts and
statutes to ensure an accountable, results-oriented, and coordinated
statewide network of resources, services, systems, and strong local
infrastructures, in order to provide family-centered, comprehensive,
and multidisciplinary early identification and intervention services
and supports to California infants and toddlers; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature shall support and promote
community-driven efforts to coordinate referrals and linkages
between, and guide families through the complexities of, the early
identification and intervention systems, through programs and
models such as Help Me Grow California; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature invest sufficiently in
comprehensive health and early intervention services and supports
in order to ensure that they meet the health and learning needs of
California’s diverse child population, and wisely harness
governmental and other resources toward these common goals;
and be it further

Resolved, That these services and supports build upon existing
efforts, and be embedded and accessible from the places and people
that families know and trust, including pediatric practices and other
health settings, community-based organizations, regional centers,
Early Head Start programs, First 5s, and other local early childhood
programs; and be it further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.