First Steps Listserv

Subject:  Family Cost Participation
From:  Joyce Jackman, Coordinator Early Intervention Services


Audience:  SPOE Directors, Service Coordinators, SICC, Consultants
 

Date:  August 2, 2006

In a recent communication from the US Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), we were instructed to amend our Part C state regulations addressing family cost participation (FCP).  The changes required are minor, in terms of their affect on the First Steps Program.  The applicable sections of the state plan with proposed changes are posted on the Division of Special Education’s website at http://dese.mo.gov/divspeced/stateplan/index.html.

The public comment period for these changes will run from August 1, 2006 through October 31, 2006.  Specific information regarding the comment period and the public hearings is also at the above web site.

To summarize the required changes, OSEP instructed Missouri to include language in the state regulations stating that families will not be charged a monthly fee under FCP exceeding the total cost of the services provided in that month.  This requirement caused a necessary change in the procedures we established for implementation of FCP.  As a result families will not receive their first monthly statement until October 2006.  The October statement will cover services provided in July 2006.  While most families receive significantly more services in a month than the dollar amount of their participation fee, there are some families who will be affected by this change.  Families receiving no more than two hours per month of services, excluding service coordination, and whose adjusted gross income places them at the maximum fee on the sliding scale, will have an adjusted monthly fee assessed that does not exceed the actual cost of the month’s services.

FCP will continue to be billed two months following the actual month for which services were provided.  This delay is necessary in order to check the exact dollar figure billed and paid to the providers for the billable month.  If a child receives no services other than service coordination in a given month, the family’s calculated monthly fee will be reduced to zero.  There may be times when a child is hospitalized, ill or on vacation and services are not provided.  Each of these instances could affect the amount of FCP to be billed for that month.  The central finance office (CFO) will review claims submitted and paid to providers before they calculate the amount to charge the family.

These changes in no way alter the process for collecting and recording the necessary information related to FCP by the service coordinators.  A step-by-step guide for FCP data entry into the child’s early intervention record on the web will be e-mailed shortly.  It is important to remember that the system is built to calculate a fee based on the information entered.  Service coordinators should review the calculation with the family and inform them that the actual fee assessed in a given month may vary depending on the cost of the services received and paid for in that month.

SPOE directors will receive more information on this issue at the SPOE director’s meeting scheduled for August 9, 2006.