Evaluating community collaboration in writing interagency agreements on the age 3 transition

Representatives from 34 local interagency coordinating councils participated in a training on the development of interagency agreements. Coordinators of these councils or their designated representative participated in an interview about the process and 29 of the councils submitted written agreements within 9 months of the final training date. Results indicate that most communities included the majority of the legal requirements of transition in their agreements. Communities whose agreements were signed by agency administrators were rated somewhat higher for the number of legal requirements and quality indicators contained, when compared to those that remained unsigned. Interview participants identified policy issues such as ensuring continuity of services and interpretations of regulations as significant barriers to the writing of an agreement.