1. To provide children with special health care needs with high quality services in a sensitive, professional and competent manner;
2. To maintain a professional, qualified staff by providing a competitive compensation package and a safe work environment;
3. To provide cost efficient and/or cost effective services that ensure all clients have equal access to services regardless of ability to pay.

Professionals estimate that 7% of all children have a special health care need. They are defined as children with a chronic health condition who need more health, and health related, services than the general pediatric population

1. 7% of all children have a special health care need
2. El Paso County has approximately 703,000 residents, of whom nearly one third are under the age of 18.
3. There are 58,000 children birth to three years old.
   • In El Paso County there are approximately 16,239 children with special health care needs,
   • Approximately 4,060 of them are under the age of three.

1. They could be medically complex, meaning that they have a serious medical condition that requires ongoing medical treatment and monitoring by trained medical personnel, and require access to a complex array of health and health related services.
2. They could be medically fragile, meaning that they require use of medical technical devices to compensate for the loss of bodily functions needed to participate in activities of daily living.
3. These definitions include that group of children who have been referred to as children with disabilities and children with developmental delays.
4. A study in San Antonio is testing three criteria to identify children with special health care needs:
   • Children who have functional limitations,
   • Children whose use of medical services exceeds the average use of medical services,
   • Children who need some type of compensatory device,
   • The study goes on define children with complex health care needs as those children who meet all three of the criteria described above.
5. The 7% estimate used above refers to those children who are now described as children with complex health care needs.

There are many factors that can cause special health care needs including:

• Premature Birth
• Low Birth Weight
• Genetic Anomalies
• Birth Defects
• Effects of Alcohol & /or Drugs During Pregnancy
• Trauma to the Unborn Child, or to a New Born Infant

Children with special health care needs and their families often require a complex array of specialized services and supports such as:

• Specialized health and health related services from doctors, rehabilitation therapists, nurses, and other medical professionals
• Specialized medical equipment, adaptive aids and devices, medications and nutritional supplements, and medical supplies
• Modifications to their living environment
• Comprehensive health insurance
• Personal attendant services
• Special education
• Financial assistance
• Medical transportation

Paso Del Norte Childrens Development Center is the only charitable organization in town with a specific mission to help children with special health care needs. We do this by operating the following programs:

1. El Papalote Inclusive Child Development Center, a Four Star Designated Vendor center designed to provide child care services for children with special health care needs.
2. Community Resource Center , to improve the capacity of the community to take care of children with special health care needs by providing information, training and advocacy
   • The community resource center is home to the Family Support Initiative, an effort to help families who have children with special health care needs integrate into mainstream community activities.

Paso Del Norte Childrens Development Center has a tradition of providing quality services to the children we serve. Quality is determined by internal and external measurements. Internally, we conduct annual parent satisfaction surveys to give parents an opportunity to provide feedback on our services. Parents rate our Early Childhood Intervention program and El Papalote Inclusive Child Development Center very highly. Our consumers give our programs an approval rating above 94%. The Community Resource Center conducts many training activities and participants complete an evaluation form after each activity.

Both the Early Childhood Intervention and El Papalote are subject to review by external agencies. ECI is monitored by the Texas Interagency Council on Early Childhood Intervention on a three-year cycle. We have been a Level 1 rated program for each of the last three review periods, the highest possible rating this program can receive.

El Papalote is highly regulated and inspected by state and municipal agencies. It is inspected by local authorities such as the health department and the fire department. As a child care facility, it is licensed by the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services, Day Care Licensing Division. The ultimate evaluation by the Child Care Service, an organization with a goal of promoting high quality childcare services. It has a multi-tiered, Designated Vendor Program that recognizes childcare centers that exceed the state minimum standards, and it recognizes facilities to the extent that they exceed the prescribed standards. El Papalote is one of a very select group of Four-Star Designated Vendors, the highest rating that CCS bestows.