Special Education Itinerant Services for Preschool Children with Disabilities

While the district must select an NYSED approved provider of SEIS for the child, the SEIS provider’s location is not the same as the location for SEIS delivery that must be specified in the IEP².  Except for July/August programs, the provider is not specified in the IEP.  However, the IEP must indicate the location where SEIS will be provided.

If the CPSE recommends SEIS, the district must request that the parent identify the initial child care location arranged by the parent, or other site, at which SEIS would be provided.  The district is not required to transport the child to and from the location where SEIS is to be provided.  

SEIS must be provided at the child care location identified by the parent, which is documented as the “location” for the provision of this service in the IEP.  SEIS may be provided at an approved or licensed prekindergarten or Head Start program, a hospital, a State facility, or a child care location selected by the parent.  If the CPSE determines that documented medical or special needs³ of the preschool child indicate that the child cannot travel to another site, the child may be entitled to receive SEIS in the preschool child’s home.  Therefore, the IEP recommendation for the location of SEIS must specify the child care or regular early childhood program or hospital or facility where the child will be attending, as identified by the parent. 

Except for student-specific extenuating health and safety reasons, SEIS may not be provided as individualized or group instruction at the site of the approved provider.

2 An exception to this rule would be when the same agency operates the regular early childhood program that the child would be attending and SEIS would be provided to the child in the regular early childhood program.

3 Education Law section 4410(1)(k)

The IEP must specify the intensity for SEIS.  Intensity means individual or groups sessions.

SEIS may be provided to a group of children (i.e., 2-3 students) when the IEP indicates the student may receive group SEIS and when the children have similar instructional needs.

SEIS should always work toward facilitating the child's participation in activities with the nondisabled peers in the setting.  Providing SEIS to a small group cannot be used to segregate children with disabilities into a mini-group within an integrated setting.

If the CPSE believes that the child could benefit from SEIS provided in a group (i.e., 2-3 students), it should make the group SEIS recommendation in the IEP.  If SEIS cannot be provided in a group at the child care location selected by the parent because, for example, there are no other students served by the same provider at this location or the students cannot be grouped based on similarity of need, the provider may need to deliver SEIS in individual sessions.  In this case, there would be no regulatory violation of IEP implementation because the provider is not exceeding the maximum instructional group recommended by the CPSE.  In selecting the provider, the CPSE may wish to ascertain from the regular early childhood program whether there is another SEIS provider serving preschool students with disabilities at that location.

SEIS must be provided by a New York State certified special education teacher.  While most children receive SEIS from a teacher certified in special education or speech and hearing, children with hearing impairments may require a certified teacher of the deaf, children with visual impairments may require a certified teacher of the blind and visually impaired, and bilingual children may require a certified bilingual teacher of special education. 

Each preschool program approved to provide SEIS to preschool students with disabilities must have an “employer-employee” relationship with the special education teachers providing such services.  See http://www.nysed.gov/special-education/special-education-itinerant-teach....

The total number of students with disabilities assigned to the special education teacher cannot exceed 20.

SEIS providers must maintain accurate program and financial records, including but not limited to:

• Attendance registers, which must be available for inspection by appropriate personnel of the State Education Department (SED), the municipality and the school district in which each preschool child resides.
• Documentation of the provision of service, consistent with the IEP, for enrolled preschool children with disabilities, which must be kept for seven years after the end of the school year in which programs and services are provided. Providers must ensure that these records contain the correct starting and ending dates of programs and services.
• Documentation of communications with CPSEs when students have excessive, frequent and/or regular absences that impact a child’s receipt of services as required by their IEPs, including:
  • the reasons for such absences, and
  • the steps the provider agency has taken to address such absences.
• Documentation of make-up sessions for SEIS which were provided to the child by qualified staff in accordance with State policy (Attachment 2).
• Records that include time spent on coordination, preparation for and attendance at CPSE meetings, travel and other required functions by programs providing SEIS (such as Coordination of related services and SEIS) as defined in section 200.9(f)(2)(ix)(c) of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.
• Records requested by municipalities and school districts to support all billing for programs and services.
• Financial accounts, reports and statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and in accordance with section 200.9(d) of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.

If the CPSE determines that a preschool student with a disability is to receive SEIS and one or more related services, the SEIS provider is responsible for the coordination of the student’s services.  Coordination of services means:

1. Arranging the schedule for service delivery, offering recommendations and consulting with the CPSE chairperson to resolve scheduling and service delivery issues when appropriate.
2. Sharing information with related service providers for the appropriate integration of SEIS and each of the related services the student receives.
3. Gathering progress reports and anecdotal information relating to the student’s progress from all related service providers and SEIS to ensure that the coordinator has a general knowledge of the child’s progress, as well as any significant considerations from each related service area. 
4. Attending all meetings of the CPSE after initial placement, including the annual review.
5. Providing, at the request of the CPSE, progress information to parents.
6. Conducting activities such as telephone conferences or other communication practices.

In the event a preschool student is not receiving the related services as recommended in the IEP, the SEIS provider must identify this concern to the related service provider(s) and the CPSE.

Effective July 1, 2015, billing for SEIS is on a fee-for-service basis and must be consistent with section 200.9(f)(2)(ix) of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education, the Reimbursable Cost Manual (RCM), and NYSED policy and guidance, as follows:

• Billing for SEIS is based on one-half hour blocks of time at the SEIS rate established by NYSED. 
  • Direct SEIS: Billable time for a half-hour direct SEIS session includes only the time the special education teacher is providing direct instructional support to the student and does not include other activities such as writing session notes, preparing materials for the next session or speaking with the student’s teacher.
  • Indirect SEIS: Billable time for a half-hour indirect SEIS session includes only the time the special education teacher is directly meeting with the regular early childhood teacher providing consultation to share information on how to adjust the learning environment and/or modify the instructional methods to meet the individual student’s needs.
• If the student’s IEP specifies SEIS sessions for less than 30 minutes each (e.g., 20 minute sessions), the provider may combine sessions in order to bill at the half-hour rate (e.g., three 20 minute sessions to bill for two half-hour sessions), provided proper documentation has been provided.  If the IEP specifies SEIS sessions for more than 30 minutes (e.g., 40 minute sessions), the provider may also combine sessions in order to bill at the half-hour rate (e.g., three 40 minute sessions to bill for four half-hour sessions).
• In instances when student issues (such as behavior or illness) shorten a session, a half-hour session will be considered to have been substantially delivered if a minimum of 23 minutes of “face-to-face” instructional time with the student has been provided.  A provider may not bill for less than a full session when the reason for the shortened session is a teacher’s schedule or convenience or other similar reasons. 
• SEIS rates are to be paid for each unit of service delivered, not to exceed the recommendations for such services in the student’s IEP. 
• In addition to billable time, SEIS teacher’s total employment hours also include the time spent on “required functions”, pursuant to section 200.9(f)(2)(ix)(c) of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education.  Such functions include, but are not limited to: coordination of service when both SEIS and related services are provided to a student; preparation for and attendance at CPSE meetings; conferencing with the student’s parents⁶; classroom observations and/or travel for the express purposes of such functions as stated above. 
• Billable time cannot be less than 66 percent or more than 72 percent of any special education itinerant teacher’s total employment hours.
• Providers must maintain accurate records to document direct and/or indirect service hours provided, as well as time spent on all other activities, related to each student served.  The Reimbursable Cost Manual (RCM) and Consolidated Fiscal Report (CFR) require compensation costs to be based on approved, documented payrolls supported by employee time records. 
• Make up of sessions missed due to student or staff absences may be billed as a SEIS session when provided in accordance with New York State policy (see Attachment 2).

6 For this function, parent conferencing may include parent education for the purpose of enabling parents to perform appropriate follow-up activities at home.