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Overview of Regional Evaluation - Limitations
- During Phase I of the evaluation, the availability of EIIS services across the district varied; one EIIS Autism Team was providing a full range of services within their district as early as January 2002, while the other teams were only fully operational by March 2002. The staggered start times of the launch of the EIIS Autism Teams across the Region during Phase I of the evaluation process created an environment in which some teams were in place longer and had more opportunity to provide enhanced supports. This factor potentially had an effect on the extent to which respondents could comment on EIIS involvement and available support services for children with ASD, thereby, reducing the comparative value of the data collected and affecting the degree to which conclusions could be drawn about the impact of EIIS on the community following the second phase of the evaluation. As anticipated, since the community was surveyed early in project implementation, results from the second evaluation phase were, nonetheless, able to illustrate some service delivery changes that could be attributed to the EIIS initiative.
- For some target groups, the small number of respondents to the evaluation questionnaire, particularly in Phase I, limited the ability to make inferences about service delivery across the Region. However, the data collected in Phase II was helpful in describing existing services from which recommendations could be drawn.
- Response rates across different types of organizations varied from as low as 12% to as high as 87%. Mail out surveys were sent following the provincial EIIS evaluation campaign and many service providers would have been asked to respond to several EIIS-related questionnaires during Phase II of the regional evaluation, potentially creating a great deal of survey fatigue.
- The data collected does not provide information on the effectiveness of treatment plans or individual child outcomes resulting from the implementation of the EIIS initiative.
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