The family centeredness of interventions in preschool special education plans as determined by the location of service

The purpose of this research was to determine if agencies serving infants and toddlers aged birth to three years, served by Mental Health (MH), and preschool children, served by Local Education Agencies (LEA), differ in the family centeredness of the Individual Family Service Plans (IFSPs) and Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) generated.;Analysis of preschool program IEP objectives found that none of the four LEA service locations generated family centered objectives. However, the service location of In-Home/Classroom Combined was significantly more family focused and less child centered than the In-Home, Head Start, and Inclusive Classroom locations.;The second research question investigated the family-centeredness of IFSP objectives generated in the infant and toddler location and IEP objectives among the preschool locations. Results found that IFSP objectives were more family focused and less child centered than the IEP objectives for the preschool locations of In-Home, Head Start, and Inclusive Classroom, but not significantly different from the centeredness of the In-Home/Classroorn Combined IEP objectives.;The representativeness of the preschool sample used in this study was investigated by comparing IEP results with a sample of Intermediate Unit (IU) preschool programs in the state of Pennsylvania. A significant difference between groups was found with state intermediate units being more family centered than the preschool sample in the study by both individual locations and combined. Therefore, the results of this study may not be representative of other preschool programs across the state.;Although this study yielded significant results between service locations, these differences were small. Family centered objectives accounted for .2% of the total objectives while 5% were family focused. Professional centered objectives comprised 4% of the objectives. The overwhelming majority of the objectives written continued to be child centered (91%).;Family centered practices are advocated, but the movement from advocacy to practice in the development of preschool special education objectives does not appear to be occurring. School psychologists might facilitate the implementation of these practices by serving as a consultant to special education intervention teams and as a researcher to assist agencies with their implementation and evaluation of family centered practices.