Not only do new personnel need to be brought into Illinois' system, but many current early intervention personnel require additional training or retraining to meet the new requirements. The Project's efforts are in further demand as Illinois converts to a central billing system for early intervention services. All individual providing direct services must hold the early intervention credential in order to be reimbursed. Personnel may apply specific work experience in early intervention, inservice training, and continuing education toward the credential. Courses are equivalent to on-campus courses for breadth and depth, and students register for credit through selected universities.
Financial support is made available for tuition, materials, faculty salaries, and related costs.
Students completing an approved program automatically qualify for credentialing as Early Intervention Specialist in their respective disciplines. To date, the University of Illinois at Champaign, the Erikson Institute, and Eastern Illinois University are approved to offer training credentials for Child Development Specialists, and the University of Chicago offer a specialization for Social Workers Three more institutes of higher education are in the process of preparing applications for approval to offer courses in Physical Therapy and Speech and Language. HTML programmed by Lyn Sweetapple and mae.