Premature Babies Must Be Connected to Life-Changing Therapies Under New Illinois Law - Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly

""Federal law says children with developmental delays, including newborns with significant likelihood of a delay, can get early intervention from birth to age 3. States design their own programs and set their own funding levels, however. They also set some of the criteria for which newborns are automatically eligible, typically relying on qualifying conditions like Down syndrome or cerebral palsy, extreme prematurity or low birthweight. Nationally, far fewer infants and toddlers receive the therapies than should. The stats are particularly bleak for babies under the age of 1: Just 1 percent of these infants get help. Yet an estimated 13 percent of infants and toddlers likely qualify.""

""Earlier this year, Hechinger contributor Sarah Carr wrote about how, across the country, far too few parents are made aware of the kinds of therapies their babies are entitled to under federal law. Such early intervention services can ultimately reduce the need for these children to require costly special education support as school children.""

""After The Hechinger Report story was published, Illinois state Rep. Janet Yang Rohr authored legislation to require that hospitals distribute materials informing parents of premature and low birth weight babies about their eligibility for early intervention therapies. The bill also required that hospitals make a nurse or physical therapist available to explain these rights to families."}],"

"Illinois will require hospitals to inform and refer parents of severely premature and low-birthweight infants to early intervention services to reduce later costly therapies."

Illinois law will require hospital staff to refer parents of severely premature and low-birthweight infants to early intervention services that can prevent years of intensive and expensive therapy later. Hospitals must distribute materials informing eligible parents about services and make a nurse or physical therapist available to explain families' rights. Federal rules allow early intervention from birth to age three for children with developmental delays or high likelihood of delay, but states set program details and eligibility criteria. Far fewer infants receive services than likely qualify; infants under age one receive help at merely 1 percent while an estimated 13 percent likely qualify.

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