Your choice of Part C services

Some time ago, I made a table of the major differences between Part B services (for school age children) and Part C services (for infants and toddlers) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Looking at that table today, I realize I didn't include one of my favorite provisions of Part C:

Parental Consent.--The contents of the individualized family service plan shall be fully explained to the parents and informed written consent from the parents shall be obtained prior to the provision of early intervention services described in such plan. If the parents do not provide consent with respect to a particular early intervention service, then only the early intervention services to which consent is obtained shall be provided. (20 USC 1436(e))

Read the last sentence again.  In Part B, the IEP is developed and the parents then have an all-or-nothing choice to consent to the IEP or not.  Sure, parents can--and absolutely should--inform the school district of their thoughts and feelings about different services offered under an IEP; but it simply isn't the same thing as having the authority granted in Part C.

Part C parents have the equivalent of a line-item veto of offered services. They can reject or continue to negotiate some services without affecting other offered services that they and the rest of the IFSP team agree on.

Not only is this good for the parents, it is good for everyone.  It starts things off with recognition of what everyone agrees on, implements agreed on services (so they aren't delayed by disagreement about other services) and finally, focuses further discussion on those disagreements.