Coordinated Services for Families: An In-depth Look at Approaches That Coordinate Early Care and Education With Other Health and Human Services

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) sponsored the Assessing Models of Coordinated Services (AMCS) study to deepen understanding of programs, groups, agencies, or organizations that coordinate early care and education (ECE) with other health and human services (referred to here as coordinated services approaches). This report helps readers—including states, localities, researchers, and program administrators—learn more about the range of coordinated services approaches that focus on ECE and other health and human services for families.

This report presents models of coordinated services. A preliminary version of these models was first introduced with the AMCS model scan report. Those models were further developed after telephone interviews and virtual site visits with some coordinated services approaches. The refined models are included in this report.

This report also highlights findings about state and local coordinated services approaches drawn primarily from virtual site visits with eight coordinated services approaches. We also drew on information from the project’s telephone interviews and the model scan to help clarify or expand on the findings. Key findings include:

• Coordination and partnerships. Many different types of partners were involved in the coordinated services approaches. Some coordinated services approaches provided services directly to families, whereas others coordinated with partners to promote systems change—working to transform policies and practices to meet families’ needs more efficiently. Strong communication was essential for both types of coordination.
• Eligibility and enrollment. Some coordinated services approaches made progress in synchronizing applications and eligibility determination for multiple services, but none of the coordinated services approaches included in the site visits could enroll families directly into multiple services.
• Data collection and use. Coordinated service approaches collected and used data, and some made progress sharing data across partners. In general, however, coordinated services approaches and their partners had limited data capacity and infrastructure.
• Funding. Coordinated service approaches used multiple funding sources; blending and braiding funding across federal, state, and private sources helped them meet family needs flexibly. However, they had to ensure they were using funds in line with funding restrictions.
• COVID-19 pandemic. Coordinated services approaches provided many resources to families during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some coordinated services approaches found that engaging families and coordinating between partners was more difficult virtually, whereas others found that virtual services removed some barriers to engagement.

The findings in this report are drawn from the three data collection activities of the AMCS study:

1. Model scan. A national scan of public information to identify coordinated services approaches that coordinate ECE with other health and human services yielded 40 profiles of coordinated services approaches.
2. Telephone interviews. Eighteen (18) coordinated services approaches (out of 40 with completed profiles) participated in telephone interviews.
3. Virtual site visits. We conducted virtual site visits to speak to staff at 8 of the 18 coordinated services approaches we interviewed by telephone. At two of the visits, we also spoke to parents. 

Cavadel, E., Harding, J., and Baumgartner, S. (2022). Coordinated Services for Families: An in-depth look at approaches that coordinate early care and education with other health and human services, OPRE Report #2022-82, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.