My Toddler Turned Three and Early Intervention Ended. What Happens Now?

A girl turns three in July. Her early intervention speech visits ended in June, and the school district has never heard her name.

Nobody dropped her on purpose. Your child isn’t broken; their brain is learning differently, and the law did not stop caring about that on the third birthday. It handed the job to a new agency, and that handoff has a seam where children slip through.

What the law says happens at three

Everything here is US federal law. Your state adds its own rules on top, so check those too.

Early intervention runs under Part C of IDEA, the special education law. It is often run by a health or human services agency. Preschool special education runs under Part B, and the school district runs it. Your child moves from one to the other at three.

What changes at three is real. An early intervention plan, the IFSP, is built around your family’s routines. An IEP is built around a classroom. Home visits and family goals often end here. So it is fair to feel the loss.

But the law sets a schedule for the handoff. The early intervention agency must tell the school district about your child at least 90 days before the third birthday (34 CFR 303.209). Your state might let you opt out of that notice. A transition conference must happen at least 90 days before the birthday. If everyone agrees, it is allowed to happen up to nine months before. The school district must take part (300.124).

Then the key rule. By the third birthday, an eligible child must have an IEP that is written and in use (300.124). In some cases the IFSP carries forward instead. If the birthday falls in summer, the IEP team decides when services start (300.101(b)).

States are also allowed to use a “developmental delay” category for young children (300.8(b)). Each state sets its own criteria, so a preschooler does not always need to fit a named condition. A handful of states also let a child stay in early intervention past three. The ECTA Center keeps the current list. Our research summary on educational advocacy sets out where these rights come from, and where they stop.

Where children slip through, and what “not eligible” means

Here is the seam. Two agencies share one child, and neither one owns the whole handoff. The family is the only party present on both sides. So a missed notice, a slow reply, or a summer birthday is where a child ends up with no services at all.

This is not about blame. Early intervention providers and preschool teachers are doing their jobs. The gap is in how the two systems meet.

Many parents also hear a “not eligible” finding as the end of the road. It is not. Eligibility has two parts. A child has to fit a category, and the child has to need special education because of it (34 CFR 300.8(a)(1)). So a diagnosis is not eligibility. Federal law does not make a diagnosis the test, though some states or districts ask for medical information too.

The same two-part test works the other way. A “not eligible” finding says your child did not meet those criteria on that evaluation. It is a decision about a category, not a verdict on your child.

And you are not a bystander in that decision. You are a member of the group that decides eligibility (300.306(a)(1)). What you tell the team about your child at home is evidence. The team must consider it and write it down (300.304(b)(1), 300.306(c)(1)). You get a free copy of the evaluation report (300.306(a)(2)).

If you disagree with the district’s evaluation, you are allowed to ask for an independent educational evaluation at public expense (300.502). You get one for each evaluation you disagree with. The district might instead ask for a hearing to defend its own evaluation. If the district wins, you keep the right to an independent evaluation, but not at public expense.

What to do this week, wherever you are in the handoff

This handoff runs on your child’s birthday, not the school calendar. Fall is when many summer-birthday families find that nothing started. Pick the position that fits you.

The birthday is still ahead. Call your early intervention coordinator and ask for the transition conference date. Then write to the district: “My child turns three on [date]. Please join the transition conference, and please send me the consent form for an evaluation.”

The birthday has passed and nothing was set up. You are the referral. You do not need a doctor’s permission to ask (34 CFR 300.301(b)). Write: “My child left early intervention on [date]. I am requesting an evaluation for preschool special education. Please send me the consent form.” The evaluation must be done within 60 days of your consent, or on your state’s own timeline. The clock starts at consent, not at your request. If the district refuses, it owes you prior written notice with its reasons (300.503). If the birthday fell in summer, ask in writing for the date services will start.

Your child was found not eligible. Ask for the written notice and the evaluation report, and read what it tested. If you disagree, request the independent evaluation. Ask your early intervention coordinator about other services. When a child is not likely to be eligible, the law asks early intervention to make reasonable efforts to hold a conference about other options (303.209). Those options include Head Start if your family qualifies, community preschool, therapy through insurance, and library programs. Head Start programs must fill at least 10% of enrollment with children eligible under IDEA, though that is waivable (45 CFR 1302.14(b)). Programs also make every effort to serve children with delays who are not IDEA-eligible.

Child find does not end at three (300.111). If your concerns grow, ask for a new evaluation. Keep a dated log of what you see at home, because the team must consider it. And keep talking, reading and playing together. That is teaching, and it counts. For more words to use with a district, see our parent advocacy research summary.

You want your child helped for who they are, not sorted by whether they fit a category on one test day. The villain here is not a provider or a teacher. It is a handoff built across two agencies, where a missed notice leaves a child in the gap. You close that gap with a dated request and a follow-up call. You don’t need a credential to be the most important teacher your child will ever have. You already are one.

Learning draws on more than one system. A check aimed at one skill, like speech, will not show you whether something else is riding along. That might be body awareness and coordination, or how your child handles big feelings. All Access gives you the full set of Learning Success tools for the whole child, with a roadmap that names where to start. Start with All Access here.