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First 5 San Mateo’s Special Needs Project Evaluation Services

The goal of First 5 San Mateo's (F5SM) Special Needs Project, the Watch Me Grow (WMG) program, is to build the capacity of systems in San Mateo County, California, to serve and support children ages birth through 5 who have disabilities or other special needs and their families. Additionally, as part of WMG, F5SM is coordinating and securing developmental and health screenings, services, and supports for children and their families in a demonstration site in South San Francisco to inform countywide strategies.

The first phase of SRI's evaluation of the WMG (September 2007 through August 2008) documented how WMG was implemented at the demonstration site, including screening models used, services provided, and care coordination plans established. The Phase I formative evaluation also documented preliminary changes in countywide systems of care and the impact of WMG on families with children with disabilities and other special needs in San Mateo County. Data collection activities included visits to the demonstration site; interviews with WMG staff, partners, and providers; observations of WMG screening and service delivery in the demonstration site; observation of leadership meetings; and focus groups with selected WMG parents. Phase I also involved collecting quantitative data about participating children and families, including demographic information; indicators of child health, child development, and family functioning; screening results; referral information; and data on services received.

SRI is currently conducting Phase II of the evaluation (September 2008 through February 2010), which involves the systematic collection of outcome evaluation data and continued investigation of WMG's implementation and impacts on participating children and their families and documentation of the outcomes of comprehensive screening services provided in the South San Francisco demonstration site. The evaluation will report results generated from the Ages and Stages Questionnaire (ASQ), Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social Emotional (ASQ:SE) component, Parent Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF), and Health Survey. Additional quantitative data are being generated through surveys with providers who attended WMG-sponsored trainings, surveys of WMG partners about changes in the system of care supporting families with young children with disabilities and other special needs, and surveys with parents who had their children screened in the demonstration site about their satisfaction with services provided and knowledge gained.

These qualitative and quantitative methods will tell the story of how WMG was implemented over both phases and of the measureable changes in child-, family-, provider-, and systems of care-outcomes. Information collected will be used to support First 5 San Mateo County in refining the WMG model to maximize its effectiveness.

(First 5 San Mateo, 2007-2010)

Key Staff

Project Director: Dana Petersen

Staff: Lori Hodge, Sheila Shea, Mario Snow, Donna Spiker