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Early‑intervention providers, parents ask appropriators to fund Baby Watch with $1.5 million ongoing
Summary
Direct service providers, program directors and parents told the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee that Utah’s Baby Watch early intervention system faces turnover, rising costs and service caps; they asked for $1.5 million ongoing to maintain current visit rates and staffing.
Multiple Baby Watch representatives and parents told the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee that Utah’s Early Intervention (Part C) programs are under strain from flat visit‑rates and staff turnover, and asked lawmakers to approve a $1.5 million ongoing building block request.
Sue Olson, who said she has worked in early intervention for more than 30 years and previously served at the Utah Department of Health, said local Part C programs are funded at an average of 1.7 visits per child per month and that visit‑rates and contract funding have not increased since 2017. Olson said frontier visit rates are $209, rural $180 and urban $168 per visit, and that most visits run 60 to 90 minutes. She told the committee that…
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