BALTIMORE — Monday morning in the Rudnicki household; baby Jude is hard at work, practicing how to roll and how to reach. Mom Michelle says at his two-month check up, he was diagnosed with torticollis, a condition that limits a baby's head and neck movement.
“So we made the referral to infants and toddlers in November. They told us there weren't any appointments available."
The Baltimore Infants and Toddlers program is overseen by the state; services are provided to any child with a suspected developmental delay, at no charge to families.
“Early intervention is so important. There's a huge difference in the milestones that a 2-month-old and a 5-month-old should be meeting,” Rudnicki said.
The Maryland State Department of Education agrees. That's why it says on the Infants and Toddlers program website: "the earlier, the better." And that's whystate regulationsrequire local agencies to do an evaluation within 45 days of a child's referral.
But parents in Baltimore tell us - that's not always happening.
“A parent that I met that had a baby a couple months earlier than Jude, we were walking in the park and she had mentioned that she referred her baby when he was 2-months-old also and she was like, ‘yeah, it’s been months and I haven’t been scheduled.’ And I hadn’t yet had my experience with Jude, and I was thinking, that doesn’t sound right,” Rudnicki said. That 2 month-old, is now 10-months-old, and was just recently contacted by the program.
“So I filled out the online information in March of 2022. I never heard back so I re-filled out the information, so I had two case files,” Chelsea O’Connell told us. Her 2 year-old son, Cal, has a speech delay. She wanted to address the problem before he turned three, and started preschool.
“I was aggressively messaging them, emailing, calling, knowing - I work with children, I knew something was going on - thinking how much time I'm wasting, that he's not even getting his first session until he's almost 3-years-old. So it was terrifying to hear constantly how important it is to start as early as possible and then to just be held back by every road block possible."
Ultimately, both Rudnicki and O’Connell found their own physical and speech therapists through private insurance. And it's paid off. Cal just said ‘Mommy' for the first time. And month's work of physical therapy has already corrected abnormalities on baby Jude's head.
“If we didn’t do that, he’s now 5 months old, and if we just waited for the Infants and Toddlers program, he would have gone these last 3 months not receiving any services,” Rudnicki said. “Because he was only turning his head to one side, it can create flat spots on their heads, that can be corrected really quickly and easily, hopefully, with the right services so that it all evens out. But if that isn’t something that happens, kids may end up in helmets, if it’s down the road before it’s corrected. So that was one thing that he avoided by having services early. We were able to use different things like tummy time and different positioning to sort of, literally change the shape of his head." without needing that more restrictive intervention.”
Both moms know they're fortunate - they both work with kids, so this is not unfamiliar territory, and both had the time, money, and resources to get their kids this help ASAP.
"I used to get really upset thinking about all the people that aren't noticing it until later and how long it's gonna take them, and how much farther behind their child's gonna be,” O’Connell said. “There are people that aren’t going to notice, and don’t know the resources. If it took us this much to get these services, how is anybody else going to be able to do it? We were lucky that we could pay out of pocket for something, but we could barely afford to do that. We just did it because it’s what had to be done.”
“I was just thinking, if I'm this frustrated, and I don't know where to go next, then what are families doing who maybe don't have experience in the education system and don't have people they can text who work in these fields,” Rudnicki said.
Of course, not everyone's experience has been the same. We did hear from one Baltimore mom who says she's had a great experience with the program: "My son has gross motor delays and was seen by a comprehensive evaluation shortly after me and our pediatrician contacted them for services. They came to our home for the assessment. Then we were able to start physical therapy and our therapist has been great. Very responsive and sees our son weekly. It has been very helpful. I found the people at the agency caring and accessible." She did not want to share her name.
We reached out to the Baltimore City Health Department, which runs the Infants & Toddlers program in the city. A spokesperson sent us this statement:
Through the Infants & Toddlers program, we see on average 9 families per day – which is about 184 families a month. We understand the importance of timely and efficient services for our families within the Infants and Toddlers program, and we want to assure that we are taking proactive steps to addressing the challenges we face. Currently, we have longer wait periods for families to have an appointment scheduled due to staffing challenges. However, we remain committed to making positive changes to better serve our community/clients and are actively working to recruit additional support staff, secure additional funding, reviewing, and refining our assessment processes to identify areas for improvement and streamline the intake procedure to help build a stronger, more responsive Infants & Toddlers program to meet the growing demands.
We understand that long wait times can be frustrating and stressful for families, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Despite the wait times, no one is refused an appointment or turned away from our program. Our Service Coordinators continue to work to ensure every child receives the support needed in a timely manner, and the needs of our families are front and center, and they have an unwavering commitment to transform lives and empower families with opportunities to thrive.
Every child deserves access to the care and support they need, and we are committed to refining our practices to ensure that we’re delivering the highest quality of care, provide individualized support, offer parent education & resources, and provide families access to services. We are fully committed to resolving the challenges and ensuring that every child receives the care and support they deserve.
We also reached out to the Maryland State Department of Education to ask if it takes action when a local agency is found to be non-compliant with the 45-day timeline. A spokesperson tells us: The Maryland State Department of Education suggests that parents who believe their parental rights, such as the right to prompt evaluation and service implementation, are being infringed upon, contact our Family Support and Dispute Resolution Branch [marylandpublicschools.org] at 410-767-7770 for further assistance.
