The Early Support for Infants & Toddlers (ESIT) program provides crucial services to children birth to 3 with developmental delays or disabilities. Services vary and are provided by qualified personnel according to the Early Intervention Program For Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities (Part 303, Part C), which is under the U.S. Department of Education’s Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
ESIT Credential
In accordance with CFR 303.119, the Washington State Lead Agency must establish and maintain qualification standards that ensure infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families are provided services by knowledgeable, skilled, competent, and highly qualified personnel.
The ESIT Credential signifies that ESIT professionals have met requirements defined in the Qualified Personnel Guidelines (QPGs). Practitioners who provide Service Coordination or Developmental Services (special instruction) on Individualized Family Service Plans must maintain an ESIT Credential to be considered fully qualified.
Approved clock hours are available for some ESIT sponsored trainings. Availability of clock hours will be indicated in the ESIT Training Calendar.
Email questions to dcyf.esittraining@dcyf.wa.gov.
Ongoing professional development hours can be obtained in a variety of ways, including through ESIT sponsored trainings, conferences, online trainings, or by completing college coursework. Documentation of these hours must be maintained in personnel records. Licensed therapists should verify with their professional licensure organization to confirm the type of documentation needed and whether the ESIT trainings meet the required content criteria for your continuing education needs.
Documentation of Professional Development Hours Form
Documentation of Professional Development Hours - Additional Page
Personnel competencies and standards guide our professional practices and detail essential attitudes, knowledge, and skills that support quality service provision. Below are various personnel competencies developed by ESIT and other organizations to guide professional standards.
ESIT Core Competencies: Review what ESIT professionals need to know and be able to do to provide quality services for children and families.
ESIT Core Competencies Resource Video (10 minutes): Watch an overview of the core competencies, competency review tool, and crosswalk.
Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC) Cross-Disciplinary Competencies: Review competencies in common core areas of competence for professionals across disciplines providing services in early childhood.
Early Childhood Personnel Center (ECPC) Service Coordination Knowledge and Skills: Discover a common set of knowledge and skills of ESIT service coordinators to recognize their unique and specialized role.
The Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Educator Standards: Discover the first standards to focus on professionals working with children with disabilities and their families, across home, classroom, and community settings.
Qualified Personnel Guidelines
The information below summarizes each of the 17 ESIT services, as defined under CFR303.13(b). Included in each of the descriptions are the ESIT requirements for education and credentialing. For a complete, printer-friendly version, view the updated ESIT Qualified Personnel Guidelines.
Part C Services
Service to support children in the use of assistive technology (AT) for active participation within a child and family’s daily routine. Service may include evaluation and functional assessment to determine the necessary and appropriate device (high or low tech), assistance to acquire device(s), and direct support in adapting and maintaining device(s) to be used in child’s daily routines.
Qualified Providers
Audiologist, Developmental Specialist, Developmental Associate, Developmental Specialist – DHH, Developmental Specialist – BLV, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS), Occupational Therapist (OT), Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant (COTA), Physical Therapist (PT), Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA), Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), Speech Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license or OSPI Educational Staff (ESA) Certificate-Audiology.
Service to support children who are or may be deaf or hard of hearing, including identification and evaluation of hearing levels, determination of appropriate amplification or listening devices, and appropriate auditory training for use of device.
Qualified Providers
Audiologist, Pediatric Audiologist, Educational Audiologist
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license or OSPI Educational Staff (ESA) Certificate-Audiology.
Service to support children who are (or may be) blind or low vision, including evaluation and assessment of visual functioning (may include both diagnosis and appraisal of specific visual disorders), orientation and mobility training, accommodations of environment or materials for visual/auditory/tactile accessibility, and multi-sensory training/support to enhance use of other sensory modalities (touch, auditory) when vision is not accessible.
Qualified Providers
Developmental Specialist – BLV, Certified Orientation and Mobility Specialist (COMS), Ophthalmologist, Optometrist
Qualifications
Maintenance of required credential, certifications, and DOH license.
Service to support children with the acquisition of skills in all developmental domains, specifically in cognitive processing and social interaction, and achievement of IFSP outcomes through assessment and curriculum planning for family centered instruction.
Qualified Providers
Developmental Specialist, Developmental Associate, Developmental Specialist – DHH, Developmental Specialist – BLV
Qualifications
Maintenance of required ESIT Credential for the discipline.
Service to support families in understanding the individual needs of their child and ways to enhance the child's development, including social emotional support. Service is driven by a family focused outcome.
Qualified Providers
All qualified providers, except Family Resources Coordinators.
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license or ESIT Credential for the discipline.
Service to support children who have special health care needs to access and participate in ESIT services. Service may include the maintenance of existing health care needs (such as tracheostomy care, feeding tubes, etc.) and consultation between the child’s medical provider(s) and any member of the child’s IFSP team.
Qualified Providers
Licensed Medical Provider, Pediatrician or Physician, Nurse, Registered Nurse (RN), Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children through medical diagnostic and evaluation purposes to determine a child’s developmental status and potential eligibility for Part C services.
Qualified Providers
Licensed Medical Provider, Pediatrician or Physician, Ophthalmologist, Optometrist
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children’s health status to enable participation and ability to benefit from Part C services. Service may include assessment of health status for the purpose of providing nursing care to prevent health problems and promote optimal health. Additionally, this service supports plans developed by physicians which may include the administration of medications and other treatments.
Qualified Providers
Registered Nurse (RN), Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN), Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children’s nutritional needs through assessment, development, and monitoring of appropriate plans to address dietary health, feeding skills, and food habits or preferences.
Qualified Providers
Registered Dietician (RD), Nutritionist, Occupational Therapist (OT), Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant (COTA), Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), Speech Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children’s functional ability to perform tasks related to self-help skills, behavior, and fine motor play through sensorimotor development. Service may include identification, assessments, and program planning to focus on adaptation to environment and use of assistive/orthotic devices to enhance development of fine motor abilities and functional skills.
Qualified Providers
Occupational Therapist (OT), Certified Occupational Therapist Assistant (COTA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children’s gross motor, movement development, and sensorimotor function. Service may include identification, assessments, and program planning to focus on support to enhance gross motor or movement abilities through enhancement of musculoskeletal status, neurobehavioral organization, perceptual and motor development, cardiopulmonary status, and effective environmental adaptation.
Qualified Providers
Physical Therapist (PT), Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children’s psychological health through administering and interpreting psychological and developmental assessments, obtaining, integrating, and interpreting information about a child’s behavior and child/family conditions related to learning, mental health, and development. Additionally, the service may plan and manage a program of psychological counseling to child/family, and provide parent training, family counseling, and consultation on child development.
Qualified Providers
Psychologist
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children and their families in accessing Part C services through case management and coordination of all services.
Qualified Providers
Family Resources Coordinator
Qualifications
Maintenance of the ESIT Credential.
Service to support children’s access to language, regardless of the hearing level of the child, through visual and auditory language models. This includes supporting the development of language through sign language, oral/auditory language with amplification, augmentative communication strategies, and/or cued language, for both expressive and receptive language acquisition.
Qualified Providers
Developmental Specialist, Developmental Associate, Developmental Specialist – DHH, Developmental Specialist – BLV, Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), Speech Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license or ESIT Credential.
Service to support parent-child interactions within the context of family through social emotional developmental assessments and living conditions/patterns. Service may provide individual or group family counseling with caregivers for social skill building activities, address family living conditions which may impact a child’s participation in ESIT services, and the coordination of community resources and services to support families.
Qualified Providers
Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW), Licensed Advanced Social Worker (LASW), Associate-Advanced, Independent Clinical Social Worker (AACSW)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Service to support children in development of communication and language skills through identification, diagnosis, and appraisal of specific communication disorders and delays and services to help children learn or improve language skills related to communicating with their family.
Qualified Providers
Speech Language Pathologist (SLP), Speech Language Pathologist Assistant (SLPA)
Qualifications
Maintenance of required DOH license.
Services that include the family’s cost of travel that enable an infant or toddler with a disability and the child's family to receive early intervention services.
