Definition of Terms Used in the Survey

State lead agency: the state agency designated to carry out the general administration and supervision of programs and activities under Part C.

Monitoring: the state lead agency's investigation, reporting, and correction of a local or regional monitoring unit; usually but not necessarily includes a site visit.

Monitoring unit: the organizational entity on which a state's monitoring mainly focuses, which can be a local or regional unit; Item 3 on page 3 of this questionnaire provides additional explanation.

Monitoring site visit: visit to monitoring unit organized by the state lead agency to monitor compliance with state and federal requirements or examine child/family outcomes.

Self-assessment: some level of self-review conducted by a monitoring unit that may include record reviews, data collection, or analysis and that would be in conjunction with the overall monitoring and local improvement activities required by the state lead agency.

Noncompliance: failure to be in compliance with the processes and procedures required by law or with requirements to provide appropriate services.

Systemic noncompliance: a pattern of noncompliance within a monitoring unit (i.e., local systemic noncompliance) or across the state (i.e., statewide systemic noncompliance), related to the processes and procedures required by law or the provision of appropriate services, that points to a need for systemic remedies.

Compliance indicator: a statement that quantifies a goal or priority related to compliance with the processes and procedures required by law or with requirements to provide appropriate services and that signals whether the goal is being achieved.

Child/family outcome indicator: a statement that quantifies a goal or priority related to improvements in child/family outcomes and that signals whether the goal is being achieved.

Corrective action: required steps for remedying findings of noncompliance with the processes and procedures required by law or with the requirements to provide appropriate services.

Local improvement plan: a strategy or set of strategies for a monitoring unit that address local performance goals or priorities and that may or may not be related to noncompliance.

State improvement plan: a strategy or set of strategies for a state lead agency that addresses state-level or statewide performance goals or priorities and that may or may not be related to noncompliance.

NOTE: Please respond to all questions with a focus on the last complete monitoring period, even if your practices or procedures have changed since that time. Consider the last monitoring period to be the yearlong monitoring period that ended most recently. If, for example, the Part C monitoring year runs from October 1 to September 30, respond for the period that ended September 30, 2005. If, however, the Part C monitoring year corresponds to the calendar year, consider the last monitoring period to be the period that ended December 31, 2004.

NOTE: In responding to this questionnaire, please adhere to the definitions above, even if the terms or their definitions differ from your normal usage. For example, consider the term compliance indicator to refer to "a statement that quantifies a goal or priority related to compliance . . . and that signals whether the goal is being achieved" regardless of whether you use that exact term in your state.

Top