The goal of early intervention and early childhood special education is to enable children to be active and successful participants during the early childhood years and in the future in a variety of settings – in their homes with their families, in child care, preschool or school programs, and in the community. 

States collect and use data on three child outcomes to support this goal:

Children have positive social-emotional skills (including social relationships)
Children acquire and use knowledge and skills (including early language/communication [and early literacy])
Children use appropriate behaviors to meet their needs

As part of the State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR), states are required to report on the percent of preschool-age children with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) who demonstrate improved child outcomes. This is Indicator 7 of the State Performance Plan.

States use several different approaches to measure child outcomes. This training is the method Texas uses to measure early childhood outcomes for SPP 7 reporting.