§ 26.5-3-401 — Legislative declaration

Colorado § 26.5-3-401

• Jurisdiction: Colorado
• Title 26.5: Early
• Art.: Family and Child Health and Well-being

Text

(1) The general assembly finds that:

(a) There is an urgent and substantial need to enhance the development of
infants and toddlers with disabilities, to minimize their potential for developmental
delay, and to recognize the significant brain development that occurs during a
child's first three years of life;

(b) The longer a child's developmental delays are not addressed, the more
developmental difficulties the child will experience in the future, the less prepared
the child will be for school, the more special education needs the child is likely to
have, and the more costly those problems will be to address;

(c) The capacity of families to meet the special needs of their infants and
toddlers with disabilities needs to be supported and enhanced;

(d) Colorado's system for providing early intervention services to eligible
infants and toddlers from birth through two years of age with significant
developmental delays and disabilities relies on multiple sources of funding;

(e) The early childhood and school readiness commission, which was the
successor of the child care commission, was created in the 2004 legislative session
to study, review, and evaluate the development of plans for creating a
comprehensive early childhood system;

(f) The early childhood and school readiness commission extensively studied
and evaluated issues regarding early intervention services for infants and toddlers
who have delays in development and learned that there is no coordinated system of
payment for early intervention services, resulting in the provision of disjunctive or
interrupted services to eligible children and inadequate reimbursement of early
intervention service providers;

(g) The early childhood and school readiness commission was also informed
that many eligible children are covered as dependents by their parents' health-care
plans, but some of the plans may deny benefits for early intervention services,
thereby eliminating a source of private funds for the payment of early intervention
services;

(h) Pursuant to part C of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act, 20 U.S.C. sec. 1400 et seq., as amended, there is an urgent and substantial
need to facilitate the coordination of payment for early intervention services from
federal, state, local, and private sources, including public medical assistance and
private insurance coverage;

(i) Existing levels of local, state, federal, and private funding may be more
efficiently used, more children may be served, and a higher quality of services may
be provided if the existing early intervention system is modified to create a more
coherent and coordinated system of payment for early intervention services;

(j) The involvement of a child's primary health-care provider and other
health-care providers is an essential component of effective planning for the
provision of early intervention services; and

(k) The provision of early intervention services is intended only to meet the
developmental needs of an infant or toddler and not to replace other needed
medical services that are recommended by the child's primary health-care provider.

Legislative History

Source: L. 2022: Entire article added with relocations, (HB 22-1295), ch. 123, p. 613, � 3, effective July 1.