Staff Travel Time in Rural- and Urban-Serving Infants and Toddlers With Disabilities (Part C) Programs in Kansas

• Published in: Journal of early intervention Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 15 - 24
• Main Authors: Tilden, Christopher D., Kuhn, Nathan C., Samaddar, Sushmita, McKee, Hilde A., von Esenwein, Silke A., Gillam, Rebecca J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.03.2025; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Child Care Centers; Child Development; Childhood; Classification; County Programs; Data collection; Definitions; Departments; Documentation; Entry Workers; Federal aid to rural areas; Federal funding; Home Visits; Needs analysis; Needs Assessment; Part Time Employment; Primary care; Program Implementation; Resource Allocation; Rural Areas; Rural Urban Differences; State Programs; Student Projects; Technical Assistance; Toddlers; Travel; Urban Programs; Young Children; United States > US; Kansas; toddlers; infants; Part C services; home visiting; early intervention; quantitative methods
• DOI: 10.1177/10538151241230842
• ISSN: 1053-8151

Staff travel required to provide home visiting services can be a barrier to quality service provision. This may be of particular concern to rural programs, where the demands of staff travel are often thought to be greater than in urban settings. As part of a statewide needs assessment of the Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Program in Kansas (Kansas Part C), a time study was conducted to examine travel time in rural and urban programs. While in the field, Part C providers spent 29.9% of their time traveling, over half (51.4%) of their time in direct service, 5.5% preparing documentation, and 2.0% communicating with clients and partners. Travel time did not differ significantly between urban and rural programs. This suggests that caution is warranted when adopting policy approaches, such as funding formula differences, designed to account for assumed (but not documented) differences in rural and urban programs, such as staff travel time.