Author: Jenna Nguyen
Contributors: Tracy Benson, Ed.D. of the Waters Center and Luke Kusumoto, MSW, the State of Hawaii’s Early Intervention Section Child Find Supervisor and Family Engagement Specialist
In 2023-2024, DaSy partnered with the ECTA and the Waters Center for Systems Thinking to facilitate a multi-state cohort on integrating data processes and systems thinking to make meaningful, sustainable change for children with disabilities and their families. This cohort strengthened the capacity of state staff to effectively use data in conjunction with the Habits of a Systems Thinker to guide decision making related to improving access, services, and results for young children with disabilities and their families.
Four state teams participated in the cohort to harness the power of using data to improve their systems for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s (IDEA’s) Part C Early Intervention (EI) programs and Part B Section 619 Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) programs. Through virtual and in-person meetings, state teams participated in interactive technical assistance (TA) activities, cross-state discussions, and strategic planning designed to deepen individual and team capacity to collect, report, analyze, and use IDEA Part C and Part B 619 data together with systems thinking. In this blog, we focus on Hawaii’s child find efforts and highlight the interagency state team’s investment in establishing a data partnership, aligning data processes and goals, sharing data and exchanging data insights, and using data collaboratively and intentionally to improve their programs.
Technical assistance: Data tools and systems thinking resources
TA providers facilitated activities and discussions with state teams using the following data tools and systems thinking resources:
- Look! Think! Act! and Data Analysis and Use Subcomponent of the DaSy Data System Framework to facilitate data discussions and support ongoing use of data for program improvement
- Data Leadership Competencies for Part C and Part B 619 to build a culture of data use
- Habits of a Systems Thinker
- Iceberg Visual to visualize the current system and imagine the envisioned system
State Focus: Child Find
What is Child Find?
Child find is a key provision under the IDEA that requires states and jurisdictions to actively identify, screen, refer, and evaluate all children who may have disabilities from birth through age 21. The purpose of child find is to promote early identification, reach underserved communities, identify service delivery gaps or areas where coordination can be strengthened, contribute to program planning, and improve outcomes for children with disabilities.
What were Hawaii’s critical questions related to child find?
To understand the current child find system in Hawaii and identify potential improvement strategies, the team applied a systems thinking approach to analyze datasets from across three programs: home visiting, IDEA Part C EI (Department of Health), and IDEA Part B 619 ECSE (Department of Education). The team looked to answer the following critical questions:
- Are we effectively identifying all children who may benefit from Part C or Part B 619 services?
- Of families referred to IDEA Part C and Part B 619, are they all able to access services? If not, why not?
State Teaming: Hawaii Interagency Collaboration and Data Use
What did this partnership look like?
The Hawaii state team embodied collaborative partnership, mutual respect, and representation across three agencies:
- Hawaii Department of Education
- Early Intervention Section within the Hawaii Department of Health
- Home Visiting Program within the Department of Health’s Maternal and Child Health Branch, supported by the federal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program
To promote effective data use across programs, the Hawaii team built a partnership across the programs and used supporting TA resources, while remaining committed to the common goal of improving the child find system in their state. The team shared that effective teaming for them required flexibility to make progress, open and regular communication with one another, and an understanding of shared responsibility and mutual purpose.
How were data shared?
The formalization of this partnership was reinforced by the establishment of a three-party memorandum of understanding (MOU) that allowed for data sharing across the three agencies. The purpose of the MOU was to pursue mutual goals and coordination of public health efforts to support children with disabilities from birth through age five for each respective agency and program, in accordance with the IDEA.
How were data analyzed and used?
Having an MOU in place was invaluable for accessing data across disparate data systems and interpreting those data. Prior to the cohort, programmatic data were shared but users sometimes had to make assumptions about another program’s data. Through the cohort process, representatives across the state’s interagency team gathered data, reviewed data analyses, and interpreted results as part of ongoing data-informed decision-making processes. They discussed relevant child find data elements, the availability and quality of those data, referral and enrollment data, and data related to transition processes.
TA providers helped the team use DaSy resources, such as Look! Think! Act! and the Data Analysis and Use Subcomponent of the DaSy Data System Framework, in conjunction with the Habits of a Systems Thinker. Data analysis processes and discussions incorporated systems thinking approaches that helped team members understand the big picture, observe patterns and trends, surface and test assumptions, check results and make changes as needed, and ultimately design and implement a plan of action.
State Impact: Child Find Pilot and Expanding Connections
Where was the child find pilot?
As part of their state action plan, the Hawaii team decided to launch a child find pilot in one community. They considered questions such as:
- How are families accessing EI/ECSE services?
- What is the rate of referrals?
- What is the rate of opt-in and opt-out of services?
- What are referral outcomes by referral source? Are families declining services after they have been found eligible? If so, why?
- What can we infer from the data on transition from Part C to Part B 619?
- What percentage of children with disabilities who are eligible for ECSE services did not receive EI services?
Through this pilot, the Hawaii team wanted to understand the story behind the data and the challenges related to child find. The team reviewed programmatic data at the community level by looking at ZIP code, then asked their critical questions to understand patterns and trends related to identifying, screening, referring, evaluating, tracking, and serving young children who are eligible and potentially eligible for early intervention and early childhood special education.
What’s next?
The Hawaii team plans to collect qualitative data by inviting family and community input to deepen their understanding of child find practices and outcomes. They also intend to scale the child find pilot in other regions across the state, to better understand the challenges in service delivery across the islands and improve the effectiveness of child find collaboration and coordination throughout the state.
What were some of the benefits in participating in the cohort?
Key outputs that the Hawaii team achieved through participation in this cohort include:
- Documentation of their work
- Mapping of their current state system alongside their envisioned state system
- Development of a strategic action plan
- Strengthened interagency relationships and effective teaming
- Deepened capacity to use data to inform decisions that would improve access, services, and results for young children with disabilities and their families
- Greater understanding and alignment of data across Home Visiting/Part C/Part B 619 data systems and programs that would inform child find efforts and strengthen the state child find system
- Implementation of a child find pilot in one community and a model that can be scaled up statewide
- Progress around building authentic community and family engagement in the pilot community
Conclusion
Through this cohort, the Hawaii state team and other state teams strengthened their capacity to integrate data use and systems thinking to support decision-making processes and state system change efforts.
For state Part C and Part B 619 programs interested in strengthening their data or child find systems, DaSy and ECTA support is available. Please reach out to your DaSy State TA Liaison or ECTA State Contact.
Related Resources
- DaSyTalks Podcast Episode 2 Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg: Transforming Child Find Through Systems Thinking
- DaSy Data System Framework
- Critical Questions
- Look! Think! Act!
- Data Leadership Competencies
- Data Culture Toolkit
- Data Inquiry Cycle
- Waters Center for Systems Thinking
- Habits of a Systems Thinker
- Blog: Creating Positive Change Through a Culture of Data Use and Systems Thinking
- Create Positive Change Through Data Culture and Systems Thinking
About Our Author and Contributors
Jenna Nguyen is a technical assistance specialist for The DaSy Center. With over 10 years of experience across the early childhood and special education systems, she brings a passion to empowering families, cultivating authentic connections, and integrating systems thinking and data to ensure that children and families can access the quality services and supports they need to thrive.
Tracy Benson, Ed.D. of the Waters Center is a leader, author and innovator in the fields of systems thinking and organizational learning. Tracy brings extensive practitioner experience to her board service. As an educator, she has taught at elementary and secondary levels and has been a school principal and district level instructional coach and evaluator. In addition to K-12 experience, Tracy has served as an adjunct professor in both undergraduate and graduate university programs for teachers and administrators. She has been a contributing author to several books and articles, most recently authoring The Systems Thinking Facilitator’s Toolkit.
Luke Kusumoto, MSW, is the State of Hawaii’s Early Intervention Section Child Find Supervisor and Family Engagement Specialist. He has devoted his entire 20+ year career to early intervention, working in both public and private sector roles, spanning social work/care coordination, quality assurance, and administration. He has been a proud resident of Hawai‘i his entire life, loves the outdoors, and is happily married with two girls who are now in college and 12 cats.
Published February 6, 2026