Morning story time has just ended at the Gladstone Public Library, and an 18-month-old girl has made her way into an adjacent book-filled room with her mom.
“Do you want to sit at the table and draw lines?” a friendly young woman asks.
That question is all it takes to get the little girl busy with marker and paper, while her mother sits with a family specialist from Clackamas Education Service District to answer some questions about her daughter’s skills, like how she plays, eats and solves problems such as not being able to reach something. After a combination of conversation, observation and a hearing test, the team assures this mother her child is developing pretty typically, and provides her with some practical tips to effectively build her daughter’s skills in a couple of areas where she needs more support.
This scenario has played out dozens of times across Clackamas County this year, as Clackamas ESD broadens its partnerships with local libraries, doctors’ offices and community organizations to reach more preschool children who may exhibit delays or disabilities that affect their learning. The goal of this “early intervention” program is to provide support as early in a child’s life as possible so they will enter kindergarten better prepared to succeed.
Cindy Norton and Isabel Ramirez are two of the leaders behind the push to expand these community “child find” partnerships.
Cindy spent the past 15 years as an intake assistant in the Clackamas ESD evaluation center – the first person families speak to when they reach out about childhood evaluation options. She began noticing a dropoff in the number of families the team was connecting with, particularly families in diverse communities. She worked with department leaders to create a new community engagement and referral position that she now fills.
“We’re getting out and building relationships in the community, and helping our preschools better communicate with families about the services we offer,” Cindy said. “Our program has been around long enough that we see some parents who benefited from our services as children now bringing their own children in for evaluation. It’s great to see that.”
Isabel, a special education teacher and early intervention home visitor, also moved into a new role as a family resource specialist, with increased responsibility for community partnership building. Her Spanish-speaking skills have helped broaden outreach to organizations such as Bridging Cultures and AntFarm Youth Services.
“After COVID there’s an even greater need for more resources to support little ones, and more need to reach marginalized communities like Latinx families,” Isabel said. “I’ve researched connections with agencies that have culturally responsive connections with families. We’re flexible in scheduling screenings in evenings and on weekends to accommodate families’ schedules. We care about families and want to be a resource for children.”
Speech pathologists often are on hand at screening events, and Cindy handles children’s hearing screenings. In 2023, several members of our team proactively worked to partner with libraries hosting Elks’ vision screenings, so that our screening services could be part of those events.
“Many people aren’t aware that our screening services are offered at no cost to families,” Cindy emphasized. “Our services are grant-funded, so any follow-up services are offered at no cost as well.”
“Isabel and Cindy have expanded the screening partnerships exponentially, going beyond libraries,” said Kimberly Long, program coordinator of Clackamas ESD’s early intervention and early childhood special education program. “Other collaborations also have grown out of the library screenings. A staff member who helps children use technology to communicate better has worked with several libraries to design more inclusive story times. And at the Sandy Public Library, our assistive technology specialist and one of our speech language pathologists are partnering with librarians and Todos Juntos to ensure a community play group at the library is accessible to children using assistive technology devices to communicate.”
Library partners also love this growing partnership that enriches the time children spend in their buildings.
“We’re always looking to make more connections in the community,” said Heather Hoffmann, a youth services librarian at the Gladstone and Oak Lodge public libraries. “If there is a way for us to help provide more services to kids, we are all over that.”
