Parents and therapists urge continued funding for Baby Watch early intervention

Multiple parents and early-intervention professionals told the Social Services Appropriations Subcommittee that Baby Watch Part C services are essential to children's development and family stability, and asked the panel to protect the governor's sustaining request.

Jessica Palmer, who said her son Eli was born at 23 weeks and required a year in the NICU, told members that Baby Watch started services within weeks of his discharge and "Because of those services, Eli is now almost 3 and learning to walk"; she said families in rural Utah rely on early intervention because therapies are not locally available.

Theresa Johnston, a pediatric physical therapist with more than 20 years in Part C, summarized research showing the birth-to-3 window is critical for neurodevelopment and said Utah's Part C delivery system is "crumbling and stretched thin." She urged the committee to fund the sustaining RFA submitted by Senator Stratton for $4.5 million ongoing.

Committee staff had earlier noted that the governor's baby-watch sustaining request was combined with the sustaining special-education infants and toddlers request on the ongoing list; the chairs also included a one-time negative offset in some scenarios if the ongoing component is funded.

The committee did not take a separate final vote on baby-watch funding in public comment but incorporated the consolidated one-time/ongoing discussion into the subsequent prioritization motions that the subcommittee approved and forwarded to EAC.