§ 303.511 Methods to ensure the provision of, and financial responsibility for, Part C services.

(a) General. Each State must ensure that it has in place methods for State interagency coordination. Under these methods, the Chief Executive Officer of a State or designee of the Officer must ensure that the interagency agreement or other method for interagency coordination is in effect between each State public agency and the designated lead agency in order to ensure—

(1) The provision of, and establishing financial responsibility for, early intervention services provided under this part; and

(2) Such services are consistent with the requirement in section 635 of the Act and the State's application under section 637 of the Act, including the provision of such services during the pendency of any dispute between State agencies.

(b) The methods in paragraph (a) of this section must meet all requirements in this section and be set forth in one of the following:

(1) State law or regulation;

(2) Signed interagency and intra-agency agreements between respective agency officials that clearly identify the financial and service provision responsibilities of each agency (or entity within the agency); or

(3) Other appropriate written methods determined by the Governor of the State, or the Governor's designee, and approved by the Secretary through the review and approval of the State's application.

(c) Procedures for resolving disputes.

(1) Each method must include procedures for achieving a timely resolution of intra-agency and interagency disputes about payments for a given service, or disputes about other matters related to the State's early intervention service program. Those procedures must include a mechanism for resolution of disputes within agencies and for the Governor, Governor's designee, or the lead agency to make a final determination for interagency disputes, which determination must be binding upon the agencies involved.

(2) The method must—

(i) Permit the agency to resolve its own internal disputes (based on the agency's procedures that are included in the agreement), so long as the agency acts in a timely manner; and

(ii) Include the process that the lead agency will follow in achieving resolution of intra-agency disputes, if a given agency is unable to resolve its own internal disputes in a timely manner.

(3) If, during the lead agency's resolution of the dispute, the Governor, Governor's designee, or lead agency determines that the assignment of financial responsibility under this section was inappropriately made—

(i) The Governor, Governor's designee, or lead agency must reassign the financial responsibility to the appropriate agency; and

(ii) The lead agency must make arrangements for reimbursement of any expenditures incurred by the agency originally assigned financial responsibility.

(d) Delivery of services in a timely manner. The methods adopted by the State under this section must—

(1) Include a mechanism to ensure that no services that a child is entitled to receive under this part are delayed or denied because of disputes between agencies regarding financial or other responsibilities; and

(2) Be consistent with the written funding policies adopted by the State under this subpart and include any provisions the State has adopted under § 303.520 regarding the use of insurance to pay for part C services.

(e) Additional components. Each method must include any additional components necessary to ensure effective cooperation and coordination among, and the lead agency's general supervision (including monitoring) of, EIS providers (including all public agencies) involved in the State's early intervention service programs.