Evaluation and accountability in a parent-implemented early intervention service.

Traditionally human-service programs have lacked systematic procedures of evaluation and accountability to the clients served. The Regional Intervention Program, a parent-implemented early intervention service, developed and instituted one system of program evaluation to demonstrate its efficiency and effectiveness. The system as developed incorporates an economic justification in terms of the costs and benefits to the funding source, evaluation of specifically defined organizational and clinet objectives, data-based assessments of child progress, and accountability to a consumer-based evaluation committee. Collectively, these four components provide a means of continuous and reliable feedback to the funding source and to the clients served.