Federal Requirements

OSEP Requirements

OSEP Requirements: Reporting on Child Outcomes and the Family Indicator

In 2005, the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) began requiring State Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education programs to report on child outcomes and the family indicator.

For child outcomes, States are required to report on the percent of infants and toddlers with Individualized Family Service Plans (IFSPs) or preschool children with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) who demonstrate improved:

  1. Positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships);
  2. Acquisition and use of knowledge and skills (including early language/communication [and early literacy]); and
  3. Use of appropriate behaviors to meet their needs.

The ECO Center has also developed a print version of the Three Child Outcomes, and collaboratively developed a video overview.

Listen to an orientation call on child and family outcomes here (1hr 16min).

For the family indicator, Early Intervention programs are required to report the percent of families participating in Part C who report that early intervention services have helped their family:

  1. Know their rights;
  2. Effectively communicate their children's needs; and
  3. Help their children develop and learn.

State 619 programs must report the percent of parents with a child receiving special education services who report that schools facilitated parent involvement as a means of improving services and results for children with disabilities.

OSEP's SPP/APR Templates

Provided below are the updated SPP/APR templates and measurement tables. For the Part C measurement table, go to Indicator 3 for child outcomes and Indicator 4 for the family indicator. For the Part B measurement table, go to Indicator 7 for child outcomes and Indicator 8 for the family indicator.

SPP/APR Indicator Analyses

The following reports summarize progress across all states and jurisdictions based on data reported to OSEP in the February 2011 APRs (FFY 2010). The ECO Center prepares the annual reports for the child outcomes indicators for Part C and Part B, and the family indicator for Part C.

ECO Suggested Formats

Updating SPP/APR Indicators: Suggestions from ECO

  • ECO Suggested format for child outcomes reporting (B7) due February 2013 [65KB DOC]
  • ECO Suggested format for child outcomes reporting (C3) due February 2013; version for Part C programs not serving children at risk [64KB DOC]
  • ECO Suggested format for child outcomes reporting (C3) due February 2013; version for Part C programs serving children at risk [82KB DOC]
  • ECO Suggested format for the family indicator (C4) due February 2013 [43KB DOC]

OSEP Timelines

OSEP Timelines: Reporting Child Outcome Data

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) outlines the 3 child outcome areas and the five reporting categories, as well as describes the requirements for reporting child outcome data to OSEP for each APR through 2012.

Timelines document [61KB PDF] - Revised July 2012

Target Setting

Target Setting

States must set targets on SPP/APR indicators and annually measure state performance compared to the targets. In the APR submitted February 2010, states set targets for the first time for child progress data. The summary statements for each of the three outcomes for Part C and 619 are the following:

Summary Statement 1: Of those children who entered the program below age expectations in each Outcome, the percent who substantially increased their rate of growth by the time they exited the program.

Summary Statement 2: The percent of children who were functioning within age expectations in each Outcome by the time they exited the program.

The following resources provide information on target setting for Indicators C3 and B7:

The ECO Center devised a summary statements calculator that allows states to take their OSEP progress category data for the three child outcomes and convert it to the summary statements for target setting. This calculator can be used by all states to generate percentages related to the summary statements, regardless of the child outcomes measurement approach.

  • Summary Statements Calculator [39KB XLS] - revised April 2011

A national webinar "Setting Targets for Child Outcomes" was presented by Christina Kasprzak & Lynne Kahn on October 30, 2009. The session reviewed target setting requirements for child outcomes (C3/ B7) for the SPP/APR reporting due February, 2010. Several polls were utilized to assess states' progress and approaches regarding target setting. An audio recording, presentation handout, and poll results are available at the following link (scroll to October 30, 2009):

A national conference call on "Target Setting for Child Outcomes Indicators C3 and B7" was presented by Lynne Kahn and Christina Kasprzak, ECO at FPG/UNC, on June 16, 2009. Presenters reviewed target setting requirements and explored strategies for states and stakeholder groups to determine, "How much improvement should we expect?" The PowerPoint slide presentation for the call can be found at this link:

  • Target Setting for Child Outcomes Indicators C3 and B7 [746KB PPT] -June 16, 2009

A national conference call on "Summary Statements" was presented by Lynne Kahn and Christina Kasprzak, ECO at FPG/UNC, on June 9, 2009. The purpose of this call was to provide background on the summary statements, information on calculating data for the summary statements, attaching meaning to the data, and communicating about children's progress. The PowerPoint slide presentation for the call can be found at this link:

A paper documenting the development of the summary statements for target setting is available at this link:

  • Recommendations for Summary Statements for Target Setting [175KB PDF] -- May, 2008

Summary Statements

Summary Statements

States are required to report child outcomes data in their Annual Performance Report (APR). There are two summary statements for each of the three outcomes for Part C and Section 619:

Summary Statement 1 : Of those children who entered or exited the program below age expectations in each Outcome, the percent who substantially increased their rate of growth by the time they exited the program.

Summary Statement 2 : The percent of children who were functioning within age expectations in each Outcome by the time they exited the program.


The following resources provide information on the Summary Statements for Indicators C3 and B7:

The ECO Center devised a summary statements calculator that allows states to take their OSEP progress category data for the three child outcomes and convert it to the summary statements for target setting. This calculator can be used by all states to generate percentages related to the summary statements, regardless of the child outcomes measurement approach.

  • Summary Statements Calculator [39KB XLS] - revised April 2011

A national conference call on “Summary Statements” was presented by Lynne Kahn and Christina Kasprzak, ECO at FPG/UNC, on June 9, 2009. The purpose of this call was to provide background on the summary statements, information on calculating data for the summary statements, attaching meaning to the data, and communicating about children's progress. The PowerPoint slide presentation for the call can be found at this link:

A paper documenting the development of the summary statements for target setting is available at this link:

  • Recommendations for Summary Statements for Target Setting [175KB PDF] -- May, 2008
This one-page document defines the summary statements and can be used to help explain the statements to staff and other stakeholders.