How Early Intervention Works in Indiana

First Steps: Who Indiana's Part C Program Serves

First Steps is Indiana's version of IDEA Part C, the federal early-intervention law covering children from birth to their third birthday who have a developmental delay or a diagnosed condition with a high likelihood of causing one 1Ref 1U.S. Department of Education (2024).IDEA Early Intervention Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (Part C).Defines IDEA Part C, the birth-to-three population it covers, and its natural-environments framework.. The program is run by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration's Division of Disability and Rehabilitative Services — not by a hospital, a school, or a private clinic.

Eligibility does not hinge on a specific diagnosis. A child can qualify because an evaluation documents a delay in communication, movement, cognition, social-emotional development, or self-care, or because a doctor has already identified a condition — a chromosomal disorder, significant prematurity, or a similar established risk — that carries a high probability of delay 2Ref 2U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (2024).Part 303 (Part C) — Early Intervention Program For Infants And Toddlers With Disabilities.Establishes the federal eligibility, evaluation, and 45-day IFSP timeline requirements under 34 CFR Part 303.. The document that follows a positive eligibility decision is the Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP), built together with the family rather than handed to them, and it names the specific services, how often they happen, and where.

Who Can Refer a Child, and Where the Referral Goes

Any parent can refer a child to First Steps directly, and so can a pediatrician, a childcare worker, a grandparent, or anyone else with a genuine concern — Indiana does not require a doctor's referral or a completed diagnosis before a family can request an evaluation 3Ref 3Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024).Accessing Services for Autism Spectrum Disorder.Supports that families can access early intervention without a completed diagnosis.. In practice, a referral usually comes from one of:

• A parent or legal guardian
• A pediatrician or family doctor
• A childcare provider or home visitor
• A grandparent or another relative with regular contact
• Any other adult who has noticed a concern

Indiana runs nine regional System Point of Entry (SPOE) offices, each covering a cluster of counties, paired with a Local Planning and Coordinating Council that adapts the local service network to that cluster's needs. A referral to the local SPOE, by phone or through the online form, starts a federally required clock: the state must complete the evaluation and hold the initial IFSP meeting within 45 days 2Ref 2U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (2024).Part 303 (Part C) — Early Intervention Program For Infants And Toddlers With Disabilities.Establishes the federal eligibility, evaluation, and 45-day IFSP timeline requirements under 34 CFR Part 303.. A service coordinator is assigned to guide the family through everything in between, and is generally expected to make first contact within a couple of business days of the referral landing.

What First Steps Costs Indiana Families

First Steps uses a sliding-scale co-pay tied to family income rather than a flat fee, and for many families it is genuinely nothing — anyone at or below the Federal Poverty Level owes nothing no matter how many services their child receives. Cost above that line is calculated per 15-minute unit of service delivered, with a cap on the maximum a family owes in any given month.

Evaluation, service coordination, and writing the IFSP itself never carry a fee, at any income level. The program can also bill Medicaid or a family's private insurance for covered services, and Indiana's rule is that doing so must never raise what the family pays out of pocket — a family that consents to insurance billing should not end up owing more than one that declines. Cost has never been a legitimate reason a family is turned away from an evaluation.

What Happens After a Referral: Evaluation and the IFSP

Once a referral reaches the local SPOE, a service coordinator schedules a multidisciplinary evaluation that usually involves more than one kind of specialist depending on the concern — a developmental therapist, a speech-language pathologist, an occupational or physical therapist 4Ref 4Center for Parent Information and Resources (OSEP-funded) (2023).Part C of IDEA: Early Intervention for Babies and Toddlers.Describes the referral-to-evaluation-to-IFSP process families go through.. Every domain that could plausibly be affected gets looked at, not just the one a parent happened to mention.

If the child is found eligible, the team and family build the IFSP together: what the child is working toward, which services will help, how often, and in what setting — usually the child's home or childcare, since IDEA favors these natural environments over a clinic room 1Ref 1U.S. Department of Education (2024).IDEA Early Intervention Program for Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (Part C).Defines IDEA Part C, the birth-to-three population it covers, and its natural-environments framework.. The plan is formally reviewed at least every six months, and either the family or the team can ask for it to be revisited sooner if something changes.

Does a Child Need an Autism Diagnosis First?

No. Early-intervention eligibility in Indiana rests on a documented delay or a qualifying diagnosed condition, not on which diagnosis, if any, a child eventually receives 3Ref 3Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024).Accessing Services for Autism Spectrum Disorder.Supports that families can access early intervention without a completed diagnosis.. A great many children start First Steps because a parent or pediatrician noticed something in language, play, or social interaction long before anyone raised the word autism.

That sequencing is deliberate. Formal autism evaluations often carry long waits of their own, and IDEA Part C was written so a family does not have to survive that wait before a child gets any help. A family worried their toddler might be autistic does not need to secure that diagnosis before requesting a First Steps evaluation. The reverse also holds: First Steps involvement, or the lack of it, says nothing about whether a later autism evaluation will find anything, since the two processes ask genuinely different questions.

Turning Three: From an IFSP to an IEP

First Steps ends at a child's third birthday, and responsibility shifts from FSSA to the local public school corporation under IDEA Part B, which guarantees a free appropriate public education starting at age three 5Ref 5U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (2024).About IDEA.Establishes IDEA Part B's FAPE guarantee starting at age three.. How an IFSP becomes an IEP is worth understanding well before that birthday arrives: it is not a paperwork formality, but a new eligibility determination, conducted by a new team that includes the school district, under a different law with its own categories — autism among them 6Ref 6U.S. Department of Education (2000).A Guide to the Individualized Education Program.Explains the IEP team process and that autism is a specified IDEA eligibility category..

Indiana's First Steps team is expected to begin transition planning months ahead of the birthday specifically so a child is not left without services during the handoff. Families can ask, early, exactly when their transition conference will happen and who from the school corporation will take part, and can request that any evaluation results already on file be shared with the new team so the child is not re-tested from zero.