Coordinated Services for Families: An In-Depth Look at Approaches that Coordinate Early Care and Education with Other Health and Human Services

This report presents refined models of coordinated services that expand on preliminary versions first introduced with the AMCS model scan report. The models were developed to help identify the variety of ways that coordinated services might operate at the state and local levels. There are three models of coordination at the state level and three models of coordination at the local level.

This report also highlights findings about state and local coordinated services approaches drawn primarily from virtual site visits with eight coordinated services approaches:

• 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.