EVALUATION OF STAYING ON TRACK - AN EARLY IDENTIFICATION, TRACKING, AND REFERRAL SYSTEM

The ''Staying on Track'' project tracked infants, preschoolers, and th eir families in Brockville, Ontario, Canada for a period of 3 years. P ublic health nurses at preassigned intervals provided information and counseling for families and made referrals to other agencies if proble ms were judged to be beyond the expertise of the ''Staying on Track'' staff. To assess the effectiveness of the program in improving; child development, a cohort design was selected to allow development to be a ssessed over 51/2 years in 3 years. Three cohorts and a comparison gro up were included in the study. Each cohort received different procedur es for identification and tracking. Cohort 1 received at least four ho me visits, cohort 2 received three clinic visits, and cohort 3 receive d one clinic visit. Intervention and follow-up from these visits inclu ded home visits, phone calls, and referrals for all three cohorts. Com paring cohort 1 to cohort 2 at 18 months, highly significant effects w ere found; few significant differences were found at 31/2 years betwee n cohort 2 and 3 and very few positive effects were found for 51/2-yea r-old children who had been in the tracking system since they were 31/ 2 years of age. The results are discussed and recommendations are made about the implications of the study for service provision.