UB researcher will continue to evaluate the NYS Early Intervention Program for children through 2016

BUFFALO, N.Y.  — The New York State Department of Health has extended its contract with University at Buffalo researcher Randolph L. Carter to fund his evaluation of the state’s Early Intervention Program (EIP) for young children through 2016.

The EIP is a federal- and state-funded program that provides evaluation and a wide range of intervention services to children ages 0-3 years with, or at high risk for, developmental delays or disabilities. Federal funds are provided through the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP).

Carter, a professor in the Department of Biostatistics in the UB School of Public Health and Health Professions, directs the Population Health Observatory (PHO) at UB. His team will receive $375,000 per year through 2016 to evaluate EIP.

Since 2006, he and his team have ascertained the effectiveness of the program in improving child and family outcomes by producing reports of educational and developmental outcomes in a representative sample of children served by EIP.

The PHO’s work for this project involved the development and operation of an informatics center at UB to house, manage and analyze the child and family outcomes data.

The project produces annual progress reports for OSEP and was recently expanded to include the development of an improvement plan for EIP that offers evidence-based recommendations to improve results for the children it serves.

In 2009, project investigators received a grant from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration to study the effects of EIP services on outcomes of children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Carter, statistician Jonathan Dare and Amy Barczykowski, all of the PHO, developed a way to determine how much progress was attained by autistic children served by the EIP. That progress indicator will be used to study how EIP services affect outcomes for other children and how they mediate the family circumstances of those children.

Carter’s co-investigators on this project are Donna Noyes, PhD, co-director, New York State Department of Health, Bureau of Early Intervention; Raymond Romanczyk, PhD, director, Institute for Child Development, Binghamton University, and Batya Elbaum, PhD, professor of special education research and policy,
University of Miami. Others whom Carter cites as instrumental to project success include Barczykowski, Dare and Leah Dreier of the PHO.

The Population Health Observatory at UB is a research, training and informatics center that generates knowledge from local, state, national and international databases, which is used to protect and improve public health.

Carter’s research interests include measurement error models, structural equation models, longitudinal data methods, risk assessment, biostatistics, radiation effects, epidemiological modeling, and maternal and child health epidemiology.