Early Intervention & Committee for Preschool Special Education
If you suspect your infant has a developmental delay, help is available through New York State’s Early Intervention (EI) Program and approved agencies like St. Mary’s. EI helps identify and treat developmental delays in children from newborn to 3 years of age. EI offers parents access to experts who will evaluate their children in any of the following five common areas of development:
- Cognition (thinking skills)
- Communication (expressive and receptive language skills)
- Physical Movement (body, arm and leg skills)
- Adaptive (daily living skills)
- Social-Emotional Skills
If eligible, the child and family may receive services from an EI-approved agency like St. Mary’s. EI evaluations and services are provided at no out-of-pocket cost to the family.
St. Mary’s introduced an innovative mobile evaluation program to the NY Metro area – bringing a team of multi-disciplinary therapists and educators to jointly evaluate a child. The program speeds up the evaluation process and provides a thorough, collaborative evaluation in just one visit.
For children from 2.5 to 5 years of age, similar evaluations and services are available through the Committee for Preschool Special Education. St. Mary’s is also an approved provider of CPSE services.
St. Mary’s provides evaluations and services at home, in the community, at our Hospital in Bayside, or at St. Mary’s Kids at Roslyn. Services include:
- Physical, occupational and speech therapy
- Special education
- Social work
- Nutritional services
- Core and supplemental evaluations
- Group support (parent and child)
- Service coordination
- Assistive technology
- Augmentative communication evaluations
Important Information on the Early Intervention Program
The Early Intervention Program (EIP) is a public program for children under the age of three who are either suspected of having or at risk for developmental delays or disabilities. EIP is funded by New York State and county governments. Potentially eligible children must be referred to the Growing Up Healthy Hotline at 800-522-5006 or the program in the county where they reside. All EIP services are provided at no cost to parents. Health insurance may be used for approved services. When EI services are delivered in child care settings or community locations that require a fee, the parent is responsible for paying any costs associated with such settings or locations. A child’s eligibility for the program can be determined only by state-approved evaluators under contract. If eligible, the municipality will arrange for service providers to deliver authorized services. All services are identified with the parent and authorized by the county.
St. Mary’s Hospital for Children is a NYS approved provider of EI evaluations and services listed above under contract with NYS and the following municipalities. Please contact the appropriate county office at the number below to make a referral to the EIP.
- Westchester County: 914-813-5094
- Nassau County: 516-227-8661
- Suffolk County: 631-853-2318
- New York City (all 5 boroughs): Call 311
For more information, please call 718-281-8606.
