{"doi":"10.1016/j.acap.2025.102826","title":"Impacts of the Smart Beginnings Parenting Program on Early Childhood Special Education Evaluation and Service Referral","abstract":"OBJECTIVE: Little is known about how parenting interventions might influence families' access to related health care services during early childhood. This study describes the effects of a parenting intervention, Smart Beginnings (SB), on referrals to early intervention (EI) or early childhood special education (ECSE) after evaluation within a predominantly Black/Latine sample with low incomes. SB is a tiered intervention integrating a universal parenting program delivered in primary care clinics (PlayReadVIP) with a targeted home-visiting program (Family Check-Up). METHODS: Data were drawn from a randomized controlled trial of SB, with sites in NYC and Pittsburgh, PA. The 280 families (132 treatment, 148 control) were 43% Black, 47% Latine, 37% Spanish-speaking, and 100% Medicaid-eligible. Hierarchical logistic regressions examined associations between expressive vocabulary and problem behaviors (internalizing and externalizing symptoms) at 2 years, and the impact of the SB intervention on the likelihood of EI/ECSE evaluation and service referrals based on evaluation results by 4 years. RESULTS: Across sites, children's lower expressive vocabulary and higher problem behaviors at 2 years predicted receiving EI/ECSE evaluation and service referrals by age 4. Assignment to the SB intervention reduced the likelihood of evaluations leading to referrals for EI/ECSE service. CONCLUSIONS: Results from this randomized controlled trial showed that children with early behavior and language challenges were more likely to receive EI/ECSE evaluation and services by preschool-age. Children assigned to SB were less likely to be referred for services. Studying factors that predict EI/ECSE involvement for children from historically marginalized populations can help promote equity in early care systems.","journal":"Academic Pediatrics","year":2025,"id":563790,"datarank":0.10397207708399181,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"self_citation_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.10397207708399181,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":1,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9584,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2025-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1131987,"name":"Ashleigh I. Aviles","orcid":"0000-0001-6671-0011","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":759994,"name":"Elizabeth Miller","orcid":"0000-0001-9861-4833","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":749949,"name":"Caitlin F. Canfield","orcid":"0000-0001-8323-6948","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":424896,"name":"Katherine L. Guyon‐Harris","orcid":"0000-0001-5990-6892","position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1066264,"name":"Pamela A. Morris‐Perez","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":406781,"name":"Alan L. Mendelsohn","orcid":"0000-0001-9876-8496","position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":282954,"name":"Daniel S. Shaw","orcid":"0000-0001-9111-9258","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1403924,"name":"Leah J. Hunter","orcid":"0000-0002-5090-9189","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":29,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-19T02:56:17.117043Z","pmid":"40189022","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}