Best Practice Exchange

From one circle to a national count

1. Step 1

   Your circle,

   Eight to twenty families who meet monthly. Local operations stay local: your meeting time, your venue, your rules, your members. Nothing about joining changes how your group runs.

2. Step 2

   Your county chapter

   Every circle in the county New York sits in reports one number — how many families it speaks for — and agrees on three asks per school year. The chapter is who a school board, a superintendent or a county commission talks to.

3. Step 3

   The New York coalition

   County chapters send one delegate each. The coalition tracks state bills, testifies at hearings, and works alongside the structures New York families already have a legal right to: the state's federally funded Parent Training and Information Center under IDEA, its Protection and Advocacy agency, and its Developmental Disabilities Council.

4. Step 4

   The national assembly

   State coalitions meet quarterly. One count, one set of federal priorities — IDEA funding, evaluation timelines, restraint and seclusion, transition services, and the gap between what the law says and what a district does.

Best Practice — 4,299 places across America

Every metro area, principal city and county in the United States. No place is too small.