A young child exercising their fine motor skills, a foundational component of early childhood development.
In Fall 2025, United Way for Greater Austin conducted a survey of Austin/Travis County Success by 6 (SX6) coalition members to better understand how local organizations identify and support young children with potential developmental delays. The survey gathered insights from a wide range of early childhood partners about current screening practices, referral processes, and challenges families encounter when seeking developmental support.
Why it Matters
Addressing developmental needs as early as possible helps ensure children are better prepared to succeed when they enter Kindergarten. Early identification and timely support can significantly influence a child’s cognitive, social, and emotional development, shaping long-term outcomes in school and beyond. In particular, strengthening supports for children who do not qualify for Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) but still experience developmental or learning challenges is critical to closing school readiness gaps. By improving access to screening, referrals, and services, communities can create more equitable pathways to success for all young children.
Key Takeaways
The survey findings underscore a clear need to:
- strengthen developmental screening practices,
- expand access to services, and
- improve coordination across early childhood systems in Travis County.
Several key themes emerged that the Austin/Travis SX6 Healthy Beginnings Workgroup aims to address:
- Provider Capacity & Access: Partners reported a shortage of pediatric therapy providers – especially bilingual providers and those who accept Medicaid – pointing to an advocacy opportunity: increase state and local ECI funding and improve Medicaid reimbursement rates.
- Screening & Data Challenges: Many community-based organizations continue to rely on paper-based screenings, creating administrative burden and limiting the availability of data to track screening outcomes and system-wide trends.
- Coordination & Family Support: Respondents expressed strong interest in a centralized support role to help families and organizations navigate developmental concerns, particularly for children who are not eligible for ECI services.
Together, these findings highlight the importance of coordinated, system-level solutions to ensure every child in Travis County has access to timely developmental support. The full survey report explores these insights in greater detail and outlines recommendations to strengthen early childhood systems across the region.
Check out our Success by 6 2024-2029 Strategic Plan to learn more.
