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Age of Entry into Early Intervention: Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Telehealth, and Other Factors

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the extent to which age of early intervention enrollment was influenced by policy changes associated with the introduction of telehealth and hybrid service delivery models into a statewide early intervention system across COVID-19 periods: pre-COVID, COVID, and post-COVID. Study design: The study used administrative data from Kentucky’s early intervention system, the Technology-assisted Observation and Teaming Support system, a web-based real-time data management platform that tracks children as they enter and progress through Part C services. Data from 34,683 children from 2015 to 2023 were analyzed using a general linear model to examine whether age of enrollment into early intervention was influenced by child factors and safety net program use across COVID-19 periods. Results indicated that, regardless of COVID-19 period and associated service delivery model, earlier entry into early intervention was associated with Women, Infants, and Children program use, having an established condition, and female sex. White children entered the system significantly earlier than Black, Hispanic, and Asian children across all COVID-19 periods. Differences in age of entry by insurance were present before COVID-19 but dissipated during and after COVID-19. The findings suggest that service delivery model policies did not significantly influence age of entry overall, while differences by race, ethnicity, sex, and safety net program utilization persisted across periods.

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

6-2026

Notes/Citation Information

Little, L. M., Keith, S. N., Wallisch, A., Rous, B. S., Johnson, T., Howard, W. J., & Tomchek, S. (2026). Age of entry into early intervention: Influence of the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth, and other factors. Journal of Pediatrics: Clinical Practice, 20, Article 200207. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedcp.2026.200207

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1016/j.jpedcp.2026.200207

Funding Information

This work was supported by Federal Funds from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), U.S. Department of Education, through the project High Impact Models of Early Intervention Support: Accelerating Child Outcomes and Systems Policies, Grant No. R324A230160. The sponsor was not involved in the study design, data collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing of the report, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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This article examines age of entry into Kentucky’s Part C early intervention system across pre-COVID, COVID, and post-COVID service delivery periods, including telehealth and hybrid service delivery models.

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