Whatcom County YMCA receives $500,000 to implement occupational therapists and speech language pathologists into centers to support kindergarten readiness.
“I’ll never forget getting that phone call.”
Tears welled in YMCA Heart House Director Anne Granberg’s eyes as the voice on the other end of the phone said that her application for Whatcom County Health and Community Services’ Healthy Children’s Fund had been approved. The funding supports investments in early childhood learning and care, kindergarten readiness and services for vulnerable children.
This voter-approved property tax levy was part of Proposition 5 on the 2022 ballot. From 2023 through 2032, the levy authorizes the county to collect an additional 19 cents for every $1,000 of a resident’s assessed property value, generating roughly $8.2 million each year.
Heart House is one of three early learning centers within the Whatcom County YMCA. When Granberg applied for the year-long funding, she did so on behalf of all the centers, seeking support to bring speech-language pathologists — SLPs — and occupational therapists — OTs — into the Y’s classrooms to screen kids for potential developmental delays.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this without funding. It just would not have been in our budget at all to make this work,” Granberg said. “I’m just very grateful that we get to use the public dollars in order to do something that is really going to have a lasting impact on these kids and their families.”
Upon receiving funding in April 2025, the YMCA partnered with practitioners at Bellingham Pediatric Therapy and Catalyst Therapies. The funds cover the costs of implementing SLPs and OTs in the centers’ 15 classrooms for one year, reaching about 220 kids.
The need for these services extends far beyond the YMCA. According to the proposition, Whatcom County has about 10,000 children under the age of 5, and as many as 5,000 lack access to early learning due to a shortage of available spaces — a gap that is even more pronounced in the county’s rural areas.
Other recipients of the Healthy Children’s Fund are also working to address that gap, including the Sendan Center, the Lummi Indian Business Council, the Whatcom Center for Early Learning and the Opportunity Council.
Integrating early detection in the classrooms
The centers work with children from birth to age 5, all at different stages of development and requiring an individualized approach to detecting potential cognitive or developmental delays. All of the screenings happen in an integrated small-group context within the classroom, allowing practitioners to work consistently with the same kids and teachers — a format that neither Granberg nor the OTs and SLPs have seen replicated elsewhere.
For example, when Emily Sabelhaus, owner of Bellingham Pediatric Therapy and OT, visits the infant and toddler rooms, she sits on the floor as they eat and play, observing and interacting with them while quietly assessing their development. For older kids, there’s more structure to the screenings, such as having the kids match colors or use blocks to build a tower.
Although teachers often pick up on signs of possible delays, Carli Barrios, owner of Catalyst Therapies and SLP, said that having OTs and SLPs consistently in the classroom allows therapists to pick out subtle signs of a delay that could otherwise go undetected until it progresses further.
“If we see a delay, instead of a child waiting until their six-month pediatrician appointment or waiting until a teacher maybe goes to the parent and then goes to the pediatrician to get help, we’re right there to catch it early so they can get help immediately,” Barrios said.
The screening process
During their screenings, SLPs and OTs assess children across all areas of development: cognitive, adaptive and self-help, fine and gross motor, language, social-emotional, sensory capabilities and more. Using a detailed rubric, they score each child’s abilities to determine whether they’re meeting typical developmental milestones.
If a child appears to be falling behind in any area, the providers meet with the family to review the results and offer a referral to the Single Entry Access to Services Program, a local organization that helps connect families to various resources, including developmental and therapeutic.
It’s this early identification of subtle signs that, in many cases, would otherwise go undetected that makes all the difference in kindergarten readiness.
“That’s often where we see the biggest kind of gap: families don’t know their child needs help until they’re pretty far down the road,” Sabelhaus said.
Since beginning the screenings in May 2025, practitioners have identified at least a few developmental delays in every classroom — a result that’s entirely expected, said Sabelhaus. Delays are especially normal for kids who are older and potentially have had signs of a developmental delay go undetected for years.
Although it’s expected, when an SLP or OT recommends a referral, Sabelhaus said, it can be emotional for parents who may fear something is “wrong” with their child.
“There’s nothing wrong with their kids if they need more support,” she said.
That’s exactly why early screening matters, said Kelsey Wickre, SLP at Catalyst Therapies.
“The earlier that it can be addressed, the more progress and the less of a challenge they’re going to run into later,” Wickre said.
How qualification rules leave some families waiting
YMCA parent and former early learning specialist Nina Ballew can attest to the support her family has received thanks to the funding. She has three kids, each of whom has gone through periods of needing various levels of developmental support. Her oldest son, Harry, previously received free speech services through the Whatcom Center for Early Learning. Under state guidelines, however, those services ended when he turned three and was no longer eligible, Ballew said.
While the system is designed to prioritize children with more significant developmental delays, it can leave children with milder delays — such as Harry — without the intervention opportunity. Ballew said this creates a gap in services for children aged three to five whose developmental needs do not meet school-district eligibility thresholds.
For example, a child may be identified as having a developmental delay at age 3, but if that delay does not meet federally set criteria, school districts cannot offer support. At that point, families must pursue private intervention, which, depending on insurance, can cost thousands of dollars, according to Ballew.
Ballew said that school districts are not responsible for the gap, noting that eligibility criteria are set by the federal government.
“(Schools are) doing the very best they can to qualify as many eligible children as they can, and they provide comprehensive services too,” Ballew said. “But there’s this window of inequity for families, where if the child is just outside the eligibility criteria, they’re out of luck until a possible re-evaluation in kindergarten.”
For children with less significant delays, the risk of missing early intervention is that developmental gaps can widen over time. By the time these children reach kindergarten, they may already be significantly behind their peers.
This time is critical
Currently, Ballew’s 4-year-old daughter, Lennon, is enrolled at the YMCA for child care. Because Lennon is over age 3 and her speech delay does not meet the threshold for free services through the state or school district, the in-class speech support provided by the YMCA through the Healthy Children’s Fund is the only assistance she is currently receiving.
That funding allows Lennon — and other children who do not meet eligibility thresholds — to access support during a critical period of rapid development when the brain, according to the National Library of Medicine, quadruples in weight before the age of six and reaches about 90% of its adult volume.
“The research is very clear; early intervention is the very best intervention,” Ballew said. “The brain is more malleable in these early years than it ever will be.”
The ballot measure making these services available to Lennon and many other children was a close call. According to Sarah Simpson, children and family programs supervisor with Whatcom County Health and Community Services, the tax levy passed by just 20 votes in the 2022 election.
“I hope they know that their investment is making an impact bigger than they ever realized,” Ballew said.
Everyone is benefiting
Another key advantage of having SLPs and OTs regularly visit classrooms is that teachers can learn directly from them how best to support the children in their classroom.
The program relies heavily on ongoing communication between teachers and practitioners. This helps practitioners better understand contextual factors that may be influencing a child’s behavior, such as being new to the center, transitioning between classrooms and being in the foster care system, among other influencers.
Barrios said this collaboration enables teachers to incorporate a more therapeutic lens into their existing classroom skills.
“We’re working hard to increase the skill level of the teachers in the classroom in terms of identifying these things on their own and also how to offer extra support within the context of the classroom,” Barrios said.
This shared knowledge doesn’t stop with a single child or classroom.
“All the kids that the teacher interacts with are also benefiting from that teacher’s increased knowledge,” Barrios said.
It’s an impact of the teacher-practioner collaboration that Ballew and her family experience firsthand.
“The YMCA has been a tremendous gift to our child and our family,” Ballew said. “From our perspective, the tools and resources Lennon’s teachers have gained through guidance from Catalyst Speech Therapists benefit not only our child, but every child who walks through their doors. We are deeply grateful.”
Community-wide implications
Barrios said the impacts of early intervention are far-reaching. A strong early detection system can reduce a child’s risk of later involvement in the criminal justice system, improve long-term academic outcomes and ease the burden on parents who might otherwise be navigating how to support a child with a disability on their own.
Barrios also believes that sustained early detection programs, such as those offered at the YMCA, could eventually reduce the need for long-term therapy. With early support, some children may reach a point where services are no longer necessary, helping to shorten existing waitlists.
— By Sophie Cadran
Also read in Salish Current
• “Children’s Fund contract delay leaves providers seeking answers,” April 14, 2025
• “Initiative to repeal Whatcom County child care tax goes to court,” July 18, 2024
• “Commentary: Child care crisis requires creative thinking, new ideas,” July 10, 2024
• “Remember Prop 5, the Healthy Children’s Fund?” Dec. 18, 2023
• “Mind the gap: Whatcom providers face challenges in meeting need for child care,” April 21, 2023