San Francisco Kids With Special Needs Get Delayed and Unequal Access to Services

Babies and toddlers with special needs are not getting the therapies they’re entitled to receive in San Francisco in a timely way, if at all, according to a survey released Monday of more than 400 early child educators and providers.

The report, from a task force made up of early childhood education advocates, found the agencies responsible for delivering them are disconnected from one another. These challenges make it especially hard for immigrant and low-income families to access services aimed at supporting children’s language, physical and social-emotional development.

The report calls for building a system that better coordinates services — something the San Francisco Department of Early Childhood is looking into.

“A lot of programs are fragmented, and it’s up to us to start putting those pieces together,” said Ingrid Mezquita, director of the department.

Federal law guarantees services like speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy for children under the age of 3 who may have a disability. Experts say getting these services during the early years, when children’s brains are the most adaptable, can head off the need for special education services when they’re older. Any delay can have long-term consequences for their development.

“And yet we see time and time again, particularly for children in certain zip codes, children of certain races, children who speak certain languages, that they are waiting long periods of time or never being connected to the services,” said Heidi Lamar, program director for Compass Family Services’ Children Center, and coleader of the task force.

Usually, caregivers or pediatricians who observe a developmental concern refer families to the Golden Gate Regional Center, a nonprofit responsible for getting children assessed, determining their eligibility and arranging early intervention services. The services are funded by a blend of state and federal grants.

If a child needs therapies after turning 3, their families must go to the San Francisco Unified School District to request continuing services.

But early childhood educators and providers reported in the survey that limited coordination and communications between these systems and underfunding of the services often result in delayed and unequal access to the therapies.

The report noted that Black and Latinx students, and children with special needs, scored the lowest in SFUSD’s kindergarten readiness evaluations.

Karla Ramos said her daughter, who has Down syndrome, lost access to therapies after turning three last Fall and had to wait months to restart them through the school district.

“Imagine a child who’s already struggling — she’s still in diapers, and she just learned to walk in October — still maneuvering and learning a lot of things,” Ramos said. “I felt that it’s a great disservice for children with needs.”

Some child care programs have taken it upon themselves to hire in-house early intervention specialists, but have a hard time recruiting and retaining them.

Mezquita said the city is also looking into “building the capacity” at early learning programs to provide the services to children.

Besides calling for better coordination between child care providers, the school district, regional centers and health care providers, the task force also urged the city to fund the “true cost” of supporting children with disabilities, including smaller class sizes staffed with specialists.

Lamar said most of the people involved in caring for or providing early intervention services want to make improvements.

“There’s interest, there’s motivation, there is care,” she said. “There are also some feelings of being daunted by the huge workload it’s going to take to really make sure that no child is falling through the cracks.”