• Overview
• What is Early Childhood Partnerships (ECP)?
• What are the ECP Programs?
• What are the missions of ECP?

• What are the activities & services of ECP?
• Who are current and past ECP community partners?
• What publications are available on selected ECP ventures?

• ECP addresses the needs of professionals who provide support to families and young children who are at developmental or behavioral risk or who have developmental disabilities and/or chronic medical conditions.
• ECP is a core community-based leadership component of both The UCLID Center at the University of Pittsburgh and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
• ECP staff includes interdisciplinary professionals, faculty, and fellows from developmental psychology, educational psychology, child clinical psychology, school psychology, child development, early care and education, early intervention, special education, information systems management, social work, community and public health, pediatrics and nursing.
• ECP derives financial support for faculty direction and supervision from the US Department of Health and Human Services, Maternal and Child Health Bureau and for core activities from state and federal government grants, foundation grants, and interagency contracts.

Early Childhood Partnerships (ECP) is a community-based consultation, mentoring, technical assistance, and research collaborative among Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh-Child Development, The UCLID Center at the University of Pittsburgh, and community partners. ECP is dedicated to effective and high quality prevention, intervention, resources, and research for early childhood professionals who help young children and families at developmental risk and with developmental disabilities during the early childhood period, birth to 8 years of age.

Through a nexus of Hospital-University-Community partnerships, ECP forges collaborative ventures with public organizations, private foundations, community agencies, and state and federal government departments. Joint initiatives of ECP increase the capacity of communities, agencies, and schools to pool resources and to creatively address pressing developmental healthcare, human service, and education issues which will affect the efficacy of interagency child/family services; the professional development of providers; reform and unification of the “unsystem” for health and education, changes in public policy; and advancements in the evidence-base in the fields of early childhood care and education, and early intervention.

ECP activities and services are not delivered in the contrived setting of the Hospital or University. Rather, ECP specializes in and strives to address needs collaboratively solely in the context of the child’s natural developmental ecology: home, early childhood centers, schools and community settings. Through on-site, “in-vivo” consultation, direct service, mentoring, technical assistance, program evaluation, policy development, and research activities, ECP focuses directly on the needs of professionals in early childhood settings who deliver high quality education, child care, resources, and support to families and young children at developmental risk and with developmental disabilities.

1. Scaling Progress in Early Childhood Settings (SPECS)

Authentic measurements and developmentally appropriate, longitudinal program evaluation research focusing on child, family, program, community, health/nutrition, early literacy, and early school success benchmarks and outcomes for high-risk children in inclusive early childhood, Head Start, early intervention, and early public school settings

• Bagnato, SJ (2002) Quality Early Learning-Key to School Success: A First-Phase 3-Year Program Evaluation Research Report for Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Initiative, Final Report [click for pdf]
• Bagnato, SJ (2002) Quality Early Learning-Key to School Success, Executive Summary [click for pdf]
• Bagnato, SJ, etal, (2002). Child developmental impact of Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) in high-risk communities: First-phase authentic evaluation research, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17(1), 559-580.

2. HealthyCHILD (Collaborative Health Interventions for Learners with Differences) School-Linked Developmental Healthcare Partnership

Collaborative developmental healthcare support from a mobile, transagency team (parents, health, education, and allied health together) provided in early childhood and early intervention classrooms, family child care settings, and schools, focusing on children with acute and chronic medical concerns, challenging or atypical behaviors, and developmental delays/disabilities

• Bagnato, SJ etal (2004). Developmental healthcare partnerships in inclusive early childhood intervention settings: The HealthyCHILD model, Infants and Young Children, 17(4), 301-317.
• Bagnato, SJ (2002). System of Early Care: Building family-centered healthcare partnerships for young children in everyday settings [click for doc]

Like its umbrella organization, The UCLID Center at the University of Pittsburgh, Early Childhood Partnerships apply the core principles of The US Maternal and Child Health Bureau: Interdisciplinary; Community-based; Family-centered; Culturally-competent; and Collaborative.

All ECP partnership initiatives focus on common themes and aims:

• To provide ongoing, on-site, “in-vivo” consultation and support to teachers, administrators, team members, and parents in early childhood intervention programs;
• To conduct applied research in natural home and community infant and preschool settings that offers clear guidelines about effective early childhood practices;
• To infuse evidence-based "best practices" into early childhood services and research conducted in community settings, particularly for young children with special developmental needs;
• To champion flexible venues for responsive professional development training and mentoring for early childhood professionals in their everyday work environments;
• To field-validate system reform models that can be applied to unify the “the unsystem”, the early care and education field and its health and human service supports into a seamless network;
• To nurture changes in the quality, scope, and integration of physical healthcare, behavioral/mental healthcare, and developmental, educational, and family support services provided in early childhood programs;
• To forge joint ventures among community agencies and The Hospital-University collaborative that pool human and financial resources to reduce redundancies and to design creative "transagency networks" to expand the expertise available to the early childhood community;
• To advocate for change in public policy, human service systems, and political initiatives that directly shape the quality and scope of early childhood services;
• To serve as a regional "catalyst" for a unified early care and education network by providing government, foundation, and community stakeholders with clear practice guidelines and research outcomes

All ECP programs share modes of "core" activities and services involving consultation, mentoring, advocacy, technical assistance, and research. Some of the specific modes in a “collaborative consultation and problem-solving approach” include:

• Site-based training and mentoring for professional development competencies supplemented by other responsive distance learning options;
• Applied program evaluation research on child, family, program, community, health, and early school success outcomes and both professional and evidence-based standards, benchmarks, and “best practices”;
• Program-focused consultation on effective and practical “solutions” to manage the physical health, behavioral health, and early learning needs of young children at developmental risk;
• Technical assistance, training, and mentoring for inclusion of young children with special needs into typical early childhood settings;
• Parent education and support on preventive developmental healthcare concerns and early school success competencies;
• Systems consultation to administrators about classroom and program organizational design and transagency teamwork;
• Technical assistance to program staff and administrators about database technologies for linking assessment, curriculum-planning, intervention, and program efficacy evaluation in community programs and schools for young children at developmental risk

The following local, regional, state, and national collaborators have entered into past or current interagency partnership agreements with ECP to support mutual aims:

• The Vira and Howard Heinz Endowments
• Beginning with Books
• Allegheny County Department of Human Services-Alliance for Infants and Toddlers
• US Department of Commerce
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education, Early Intervention Branch
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Public Welfare, Early Intervention
• Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PATTAN)
• The Jewish Healthcare Foundation of Pittsburgh
• State of Georgia, Department of Human Resources, Division of Public Health, Children First
• CenClear Child Services, Head Start
• Greater Braddock Early Childhood Network
• Hosanna House, Wilkinsburg Early Childhood Initiative
• School Readiness Group
• Woodland Hills School District
• United Way of Lancaster/Lancaster Osteopathic Health Association, Success by Six
• United Way of York, Focus on Our Future
• Erie City School District/Gannon University/Erie Community Foundation
• US Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)
• Pittsburgh Public Schools, Board of Education
• Council of Three Rivers American Indian Center (COTRAIC) Head Start
• Community Development Institute Head Start
• Early Childhood and Family Support Services, Allegheny County/Allegheny Intermediate Unit Head Start
• Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Child Development Resource Developers (CDRD)
• West Virginia Northern Panhandle Head Start
• Allegheny County Children’s Cabinet
• US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, Head Start Bureau
• Child Development Resources (Virginia); Georgetown University Child Development Center (District of Columbia)
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Early Intervention Technical Assistance (EITA), Bureau of Special Education
• US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs
• Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, Center of Evidence-based Practices
• Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Office of Child Development, Departments of Education and Public Welfare
• SRI International, Early Childhood Outcomes Study (ECOS), Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education
• Departments of Pediatrics and Child Neuropsychiatry, Federico II University Medical School, Naples, ITALY

Bagnato, SJ (1994). HealthyCHILD (Collaborative Health Interventions for Learners with Disabilities): A transagency developmental dealthcare resource partnership in early intervention programs, US Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Grant #HO23D40013.

Bagnato, SJ (1995). TeamWork: Collaborative family-professional assessment and decision-making on early intervention teams, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Family-Focused Early Intervention System, Bureau of Special Education (1991-1995)

Bagnato, SJ (1997). A consultative model for developmental healthcare support for infants and toddlers in early intervention programs: Project EarlyCHILD, The Jewish Healthcare Foundation of Pittsburgh (1995-1997)

Bagnato, SJ (1999). Efficacy of collaborative developmental healthcare support in inclusive early childhood programs—Final research report of HealthyCHILD. Washington, DC: Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Early Childhood Partnerships, US Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services.

Bagnato, SJ (2002). Quality early learning—Key to school success: A first-phase 3-Year program evaluation research report for Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Initiative (ECI), Pittsburgh, PA: SPECS Evaluation Team, Early Childhood Partnerships, Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. [Click for pdf]

Bagnato, SJ, Blair, K, Slater, J, McNally, R, Mathew, J, Minzenberg, B (2004). Developmental healthcare partnerships in inclusive early childhood intervention settings: The HealthyCHILD model, Infants and Young Children, 17(4), 301-317.

Bagnato, SJ, Neisworth, JT (1993). The Pennsylvania Preschool Integration Initiative (PAPII), The efficacy of inclusive preschool intervention: A Three-Year Longitudinal Evaluation Research Study, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Bureau of Special Education (1990-1993)

Bagnato SJ, Neisworth JT: A national study of the social and treatment “invalidity” of intelligence testing for early intervention. School Psych Quarterly 9(2):81-102, 1995

Bagnato SJ, Neisworth JT: Collaboration and teamwork in assessment for early intervention. Child Adol Psych Cl North Am 8(2):1-17, 1999

Bagnato SJ, Neisworth JT: Normative detection of early regulatory disorders and Autism: Empirical confirmation of DC:0-3. Inf Young Children 12(2):98-109, 2000

Bagnato SJ, Neisworth JT, Munson SM: LINKing assessment and early intervention: An authentic curriculum-based approach (3rd Edition). Baltimore, MD, Paul Brookes, 1997

Bagnato SJ, Neisworth JT, Salvia J, Hunt F: Temperament and Atypical Behavior Scale: Early Childhood Indicators of Developmental Dysfunction. Baltimore, MD, Paul Brookes Publishing Co., 1999

Bagnato, SJ, Suen, HK, Brickley, D, Smith-Jones, J, Dettore, E (2002). Child developmental impact of Pittsburgh’s Early Childhood Initiative (ECI) in high-risk communities: First phase authentic evaluation research. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 17(4), 559-580.

Neisworth JT, Bagnato SJ: Neurobehavioral markers for early regulatory disorders. Inf Young Children 8(1):8-17, 1995

Neisworth JT, Bagnato SJ: Recommended practices in assessment (17-28). In Sandall S, McLean ME, Smith BJ (eds): DEC Recommended Practices in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.

Neisworth, JT & Bagnato, SJ (2004). The mismeasure of young children: The authentic assessment alternative, Infants and Young Children, 17(3), 198-212.