(A) Central intake and referral system
contractors who enter into contracts, subsidy agreements, or who are awarded
grant funds by the department shall be qualified nonprofit entities as defined
by the Ohio department of taxation, or government entities who must:
(1) Complete the required application or
submit a proposal, as applicable, by the due date set forth in the announcement
of available funds;
(2) Complete
the process to become a vendor with the state of Ohio;
(3) Provide the services in accordance with
the terms of the contract, grant or agreement and rules in this chapter, and
to comply with requests, expectations and
requirements of the department.
(B) Contractor shall designate one individual
as the contract manager who is responsible for oversight and monitoring of the
required activities of the grant, contract or agreement. Contract manager must
have a minimum equivalent of a bachelor's degree in public health, social work,
public administration, business, or a field closely related to early childhood,
from an accredited college or university. The
contract manager shall complete all required training within thirty days of
hire.
(C) Contractors
shall ensure that individuals utilized for central intake related activities
possess a minimum of a high school diploma or GED, and shall complete all
required training
specified in the contractor's
approved operational plan.
within thirty days
of hire.
(D) Central
intake and referral system contractors shall:
(1) Facilitate public awareness and outreach
activities designed to engage and inform the public regarding the
potential benefits of participating in home
visiting
and early intervention programs.
At a minimum, contractor shall develop and execute a balanced, coordinated
child find and outreach plan, consisting of
activities designed to connect with families and children eligible for
either home visiting
and early intervention for
in the counties of contracted service.
Additionally, contractor shall:
(a) Inform
potential referral sources on timely identification of and process to refer
potentially eligible pregnant women
,
and caregivers of eligible
children
infants and
toddlers, including the early identification of infants and toddlers with a
disability;
(b) Facilitate
or participate in local community events
that
present the opportunity to promote the
potential benefits of
both the home visiting
program
and early
intervention programs;
(c)
Disseminate approved information to possible referral sources, as well as to
potentially eligible families, informing them of the potential benefits of home visiting
or early intervention programs;
(d) Facilitate
other activities that provide the opportunity to
collaborate with
other
home visiting providers, early childhood,
prenatal and
health care organizations and
professionals
caregiver health and wellness
related activities;
(e)
Develop and maintain a county-based directory of resources for caregivers that
includes child health, child development, caregiver support,
home visiting and other appropriate early
childhood resources. Directory shall be updated annually, to coincide with the
beginning of the state fiscal year, and must be submitted to the department
upon request;
(f) As a component of the local
directory, contractor shall maintain a home visiting matrix of services which
identifies any federal, state, county, or municipal funded home visiting
program in the contracted service area, by county of service. At a minimum,
matrix must include program name and description, eligibility and enrolment
criteria, agency name and contact information.
(2) Provide an initial screening to
identify each caregiver member's risk factors and social determinants of
health, ultimately formulating a determination of fit for available programing
in accordance with section 3701.611 of the Revised Code;
(2)
Complete a screening tool and determine eligibility in
accordance with section
3701.611 of the Revised Code and
assign the family to the appropriate evidence-based or promising-practice model
and funding stream, based on availability within the county and parental
choice;
(a)
Confirm eligibility for the program by verifying any of the
following:
(i)
Current women, infants and children (WIC), Ohio medicaid, or
other Ohio public assistance verification;
(ii)
Two most recent,
consecutive pay stubs from current employment that verifies the family meets
income guidelines;
(iii)
Military identification; or
(iv)
Other
documentation which allows the central intake agency to determine financial or
military eligibility.
(b)
Enter
documentation in the family record when financial criteria are used for
eligiblity. If the central intake agency is not able to verify the financial
documentation, the home visiting provider may obtain the documentation within
thirty days of the first visit and enter into the family
record.
(3)
Initiate
home visiting
applicable system, program and/or community
referrals based on caregiver needs identified by screening
and eligibility determination process;
(4) Maintain
applicable
county
wait list for home visiting services in each
community
county when
applicable
where contracted to provide
services.
(5) Ensure that
families residing in the urban and rural communities
that have the highest infant mortality rates as
specified in rules adopted under section
3701.142 of the Revised Code
receive priority for home visiting services.
(E) Central intake and referral system
contractors must
create and implement policies and
procedures regarding
establish and maintain
local procedures regarding the facilitation of system and program
referrals for
both home visiting
and early intervention programs in
accordance with the following:
(1) Maintain
and disseminate telephone numbers that begin with local prefixes, with
voicemail capabilities, a fax number, and an email address for the general
public to make local inquires and/or referrals;
(2) Collect the minimum information to
determine family eligibility
be considered a system referral;
(3) Ensure all referrals from public children
service agencies (PCSA) are facilitated on a form approved by the director, and
processed into an applicable program
referral within one business day of receipt.
(F) Referral information
set forth above shall be entered
by the contractor into the department
required statewide data system
for the central
intake and referral system within one business day after the
information is received.
(1) Referrals
received from a home visiting provider must be completed utilizing a form
approved by the
department
director of health and indicate the
following
in order to refer the family to their chosen
home visiting provider within one business day, except when a wait list
exists:
(a) One successful contact with
the caregiver in accordance with this rule;
(b) Completion of initial risk screen;
and
(c) Demonstrate caregiver
choice in accordance with this rule.
(2) Once a
system referral is obtained in accordance with this
rule, the contractor shall make contact with the parent or caregiver in
accordance with the following:
(a)
When a valid phone number or email address has been
provided, the
The contractor shall make
a minimum of three
different attempts, on
different days to call
, text or e-mail the
caregiver, until successful contact is made, within fourteen days;
(b) When a caregiver's phone number or email
address is not active, inservice or operable,
and
or the
system referral contact information
provides only a mailing address, the contractor shall send a written
correspondence providing information on how to contact the central intake site
if interested in services.
(c) If a
successful contact
with the caregiver has not
been achieved after fourteen days
with the caregiver
since receiving the system referral, or a successful contact results
in a caregiver communicating he or she is not interested in services, the
contractor shall exit the
system referral
in the statewide data system.
(d)
All contact attempts, successful and unsuccessful, shall be documented into the
statewide data system within one business day after the attempt is
made.
(3) During the
contact with the caregiver, the contractor shall provide information regarding
any applicable services for which the caregiver may be eligible for, and obtain
the following minimum information:
(a) Whether
or not the caregiver is interested in participating in home visiting
or early intervention services;
(i) If the caregiver communicates an interest
in participating in home visiting or early
intervention, the contractor shall then move on with the remaining
requirements in this paragraph.
(ii) If the caregiver communicates that he or
she is not interested in participating in home visiting
or early intervention services, the
contractor shall exit the system referral in the statewide data system within
one business day, effective the date of communication with the
caregiver.
(b) If the
caregiver communicates that there is a concern about the child's development,
the contractor shall offer the caregiver a referral to an early intervention
service coordination contractor and enter the program referral into the
statewide data system within one business day.
(c) If the caregiver
communicates that they are
is interested in home visiting services, the
contractor
will
shall
communicate the recommendation results of the initial risk screen identifying
home visiting program that best meets the identified needs of the caregiver.
After communicating the results, contractor must offer the caregiver a
choice of all applicable home visiting providers
.
, where a choice exists,
and make a program
A referral
will be made to the home visiting provider selected by
the caregiver within one business day through the statewide data system.
to the caregiver chosen home visiting provider
within one business day into the statewide data system. The program referral to
a home visiting provider begins the thirty- day timeline for providers to
determine eligibility.
(i) If the
caregiver's choice of provider does not have capacity to serve them, contractor
must inform the caregiver that they may join the provider's wait list for
services, which is maintained by the central intake contractor, or inform the
caregiver that they may choose another provider for services, if one is
available.
(ii) When
a family is in wait listed status, evidence-based or
promising-practice model fidelity standards regarding age eligiblity must be
followed at the time of enrollment.
age at
system referral is used for program referral eligibility, a wait listed status
does not impact the eligibility
(d) Program referrals may be made
simultaneously to both home visiting and early intervention services.
(4) Ensure that the
system referral is exited and documented as
such in the statewide data system for any of the following reasons:
(a) The minimum contact attempts were made
without successful contact, in accordance with this chapter;
(b) An early intervention child who
is forty-five or fewer days from the child's third birthday. Prior to exiting
the system referral, the contractor shall provide information to the caregiver
about other community resources available in the county of residence, to
include special education preschool at the local education
agency;
(c)(b) An individual
declines to participate in home visiting or early
intervention services.
(5) The contractor shall send a completed
referral follow up communication to the referral source when that source is
professional in nature.
(6) When a
contractor exits a
system referral due to
loss of contact, the contractor shall send a written correspondence to the last
known address or email with the following information:
(a) Details of the attempts which have been
made to contact the caregiver;
(b)
That this notification is the last contact attempt which central intake will
make without further contact from the family;
(c) Information explaining the
potential benefits of home visiting
and/or early intervention services;
and
(d) Contact information for the
central intake site should the caregiver choose to reengage.
(7) For families and individuals
already in the statewide data system, the following requirements apply:
(a) When the centralized intake contractor is
notified
by a home visiting provider that an
individual has moved or another circumstance requires that the individual
transfers to a new
change either home visiting provider
or early intervention service coordination
contractor, the contractor is responsible for
initiating
documenting the transfer in the statewide data
system;
(b) If an initial risk screening has
been completed within the last eighteen months, the contractor will review for
changes that may necessitate additional referrals, or a change in determination
of fit for home visiting;
(c)(b) Exited records
shall be reopened upon any further successful contact or receipt of a new
system referral for the family.
Notes
Ohio Admin. Code
3701-8-10
Effective:
1/31/2022
Five Year Review (FYR) Dates:
7/1/2023
Promulgated Under:
119.03
Statutory
Authority: 3701.61
Rule
Amplifies: 3701.61
Prior
Effective Dates: 08/08/2005, 07/16/2010, 09/03/2012, 01/15/2015,
07/01/2018