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Improving Systems, Practices, and Outcomes

Equity- and Inclusion-Focused Leadership: Attitudes and Actions

updated May 23, 2024

Introduction

The attitudes and actions are not a "complete set" of skills to be mastered. Instead, they help you prioritize equity and inclusion in concrete and impactful ways. Although co-developed as "equity leadership competencies" for the state or entity-level, leaders at all levels of early childhood systems can apply this material to their work, including:

  • local program staff
  • community partners
  • family leaders
  • other organizations that serve children with disabilities and their families or are working to remove barriers to equity and inclusion

Ableism
The attitudes, beliefs, policies, and practices in our society that center or prioritize people without disabilities, and exclude the strengths, needs, and experiences of people with disabilities.
Bias
Beliefs that impact attitudes and actions toward individuals or groups of people. Biases reinforce stereotypes, creating favored and disfavored individuals or groups. Biases can be:
  • implicit (automatic, uncontrolled, and unconscious); or
  • explicit (with conscious belief)
  • systemic (preferential treatment of specific groups, while others experience disadvantage or devaluation)
Systemic bias doesn't necessarily stem from intentional prejudice or discrimination, but from adherence to established policies and practices.
Co-creating
Multiple people with diverse perspectives working together to develop ideas, products, solutions, or experiences. Participants contribute their unique perspectives, expertise, and resources to collectively shape outcomes, with an emphasis on:
  • mutual respect
  • active engagement
  • open communication
  • shared decision-making
  • iteration based on the contributions of all involved
Community insider
A person whose positionality shares one or more identities with the population of people being addressed. For example:
  • A team member without a disability and 30 years of experience in the field has a sibling with a disability. They are community insider when it comes to being an early childhood professional, and having a family member with a disability. They are not a community insider when it comes to having a disability or having a child with a disability. They must recognize the need to create space for people with disabilities and parents to share their experiences and expertise.
  • A Black woman with a disability is a community insider when it comes to being a woman, Black, and disabled. However, she is not a community insider when it comes to being a Black man with a disability because although she has lived experiences related to being Black and having a disability, she does not share the experience of being a man.
Coordinated funding
A strategic approach where:
  • multiple funding sources are leveraged toward a common purpose
  • efforts to support a common goal or initiative are shared
  • coordinated funding streamlines funding processes
  • duplication of effort is reduced
  • resources are dedicated to shared priorities
  • impact of investments is maximized
  • planning, data, and decision-making are shared to effectively address community needs
Co-partner
Collaborating and sharing responsibility in an endeavor, with an emphasis on:
  • relationship-building
  • shared participation
  • joint decision-making
  • valuing the perspectives of all involved
Critical perspectives
Information provided by individuals and groups of people directly impacted by or who have experiences with barriers to equity and inclusion. Critical perspectives also come from staff, families, and community partners who directly interact with these groups. Both groups are often called "stakeholders", but this term can be offensive to Indigenous communities, as it originated from settlers placing stakes or wooden rods to claim Indigenous people's land as their own.
Cultural humility
Self-reflection on one's cultural norms, assumptions, and expectations. This includes recognition that others' cultural norms, assumptions, and expectations are just as valid as your own, and that it is possible for more than one idea, custom, or solution to be valid.
Culturally sustaining practices
Intentional efforts and strategies that affirm inherent value and strengths of families' cultural identities, languages, and traditions. Culturally sustaining practices extend the learning or service environment by actively engaging with:
  • cultural assets
  • knowledge systems
  • lived experiences of individuals and communities
Equity
The condition in which all children and families who have been historically marginalized have access to:
  • high-quality, inclusive early childhood systems
  • positive, fair, and nurturing experiences that meet their needs
  • outcomes that cannot be predicted based on demographic variables
Equity- and inclusion-focused
An emphasis on:
  • removing barriers so all children have access to positive experiences and outcomes
  • supporting inclusion for children with suspected or identified disabilities and their families, especially those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color, as well as those experiencing poverty
Equity consultants
People with expertise and experience providing inclusion and equity-related information and support to early childhood systems.
Inclusion
A system where:
  • all children—including those with disabilities and those who have been historically marginalized—are included in early childhood programs and other natural environments with peers without disabilities
  • children participate meaningfully and independently in learning and social activities
  • there are high expectations for the provision of individualized accommodations
  • high-quality, coordinated early childhood programs promote access, participation, supports, and belonging for each child and family
Leaders
Individuals who contribute to and take responsibility for the implementation of early childhood programs, regardless of formal title or position, including:
  • families
  • community insiders
  • direct service providers
  • service coordinators
  • professional development providers
  • supervisors
  • data managers
  • program managers
Leadership requires:
  • co-partnering
  • mutual respect
  • willingness to provide opportunity for all individuals to contribute to improve outcomes for children and families
Marginalized
A state of being isolated from or not fully acknowledged or accepted by dominant society or culture due to a person's positionality. Marginalized people are frequently not included in or denied equitable access to early childhood systems and services.
Positionality
An understanding of how different identities influence how you perceive, understand, and make decisions, and also impact how others perceive you. Examples of identities include:
  • gender
  • ability
  • education
  • income
  • race
  • ethnicity
  • languages
  • location
  • family structure
Understanding your positionality involves developing an awareness of topics and experiences you are more or less likely to understand based on lived experience.
Professional development (PD)
Ongoing training and technical assistance (TA) that supports team members, partners, and family leaders.
Racism
Past and current laws, policies, and biases that create inequitable outcomes based on a person's racial categorization. Racism occurs at multiple levels:
  • Personal racism emerges from negative biases toward people of color.
  • Systemic racism occurs when people of color have disproportional access, experiences, and outcomes in educational, health, economic, social and civil institutions.
Although racial hierarchies were created and justified based on people's racial categorizations, the Human Genome Project determined there is no biological difference based on physical attributes like skin color and hair texture. The idea of race was created to capture wealth.
Team member
Anyone supporting organizational efforts to improve early childhood inclusion and equity. Examples include:
  • staff
  • family leaders
  • volunteers
  • other partners
Technical assistance (TA)
Professional development that builds capacity to apply information to contexts and roles within the system, and improving access, experiences, and outcomes for children and families. TA often includes:
  • mentorship
  • consultation
  • coaching
  • peer-to-peer facilitation
Training
Professional development that addresses a specific topic. Training includes an evaluation of the experience and its impact on participants':
  • knowledge
  • skills
  • attitudes
  • behaviors
  • strategies for implementation
Unlearning
Intentionally letting go of traditional ideas, attitudes, and practices that maintain inequities, so that new approaches can be adopted instead.

Before Congress passed the IDEA in 1975, children with disabilities had no legal protection to ensure they received an education, support, or services. Children and youth with disabilities—especially those with intellectual disabilities—were commonly removed from their communities, institutionalized, or attended school without individualized support.5

Inhumane Treatment

The conditions of many institutions were abhorrent and inhumane. For example, Willowbrook State School in New York City had been a state-sponsored institution since 1957. The school was only designed to accommodate 4,000 children and youth with disabilities, but by 1965, had over 6,000. At Willowbrook, people with disabilities were abused and neglected, including unconsented medical experimentation. In 1972, investigative journalism led to public outrage, but the school remained open until 1987.

Eugenics, Race, and Disability

Disability history also has a connection to racism.1 From the nineteenth century to the 1940s, eugenics was a harmful pseudoscience movement in the United States.5 Eugenics is based on a false belief that people's intelligence is related to their physical attributes, such as the size of a forehead or skull.

Eugenics protected the perceived genetic superiority of people considered to be more intelligent by society. People who were Black, other people of color, and those with disabilities were categorized as inferior, and many people were sterilized to maintain a false perception of societal purity.

Bias in Standardized Assessments

During the 1920s, eugenics informed the development of standardized assessments, such as the Stanford Binet Intelligence Scale and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). These biased assessments were used to justify poor treatment of people of color, people with lower incomes, immigrants, and those with disabilities.8 Today, overreliance on these kinds of standardized tests to determine eligibility for special education continues to create inequities.

Legal Segregation

In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which integrated Black and White children in schools. Special education placement became a way to legally segregate Black children.6

Ongoing Inequity

These historic ideas and practices still hold influence today. Black children are disproportionately placed in special education for emotional disturbance and intellectual disabilities—two disability categories based on subjective evaluations.1

In 1975, Congress passed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which protects the civil rights of children and youth with disabilities ages 3–21. The law requires students be provided a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), including special education and related services in their Least Restrictive Environment (LRE).

  • Part C provides early intervention services for infants and toddlers ages birth–3 and their families.
  • Part B, Section 619 provides early childhood special education services for children ages 3–5.

See also: Fact Sheet: Advancing Racial Equity in Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education

Barriers to Implementation

Significant systemic shortfalls exist at state and local levels, including:

  • chronic underfunding
  • limited monitoring and accountability
  • ableism
  • continued societal exclusion of individuals with disabilities

Disparities created by these systemic shortfalls disproportionately affect children of color and low-income communities.2, 3, 4, 7

Disparities in Screenings by Family Income (2023)12

Disparities in Screenings by Family Income (2023)
Income Children Screened
All children 9–35 months 34.2%
High-income 37.3%
Low-income 29.5%

Disparities in Screenings by Family Race/Ethnicity (2020)1

Disparities in Screenings by Family Race/Ethnicity (2020)
Race/Ethnicity Children Screened
All children 9–35 months 32.5%
White 35.7%
Hispanic 27.9%
Black 27.2%
Asian 26.1%

Disparities in Service Provision

  • Black, Latine(o/a), and other children of color are less likely to receive services for developmental delays than White children.
  • Even after being determined eligible, lower-income communities of color—and especially Black children—are less likely to receive services than White children.

Disparities in Least Restrictive Environment

Only 39.8% of children ages 3–5 receive the majority of special education services in regular classrooms.9 Too frequently, decisions for where preschoolers receive services are based not on the child's needs, but on:

  • ableism
  • policy misconceptions
  • reduced or misappropriated funding
  • limited professional development
  • lack of collaboration with team members7

Thanks to the co-creators of this resource and reviewers who provided feedback and consultation:

Equity- and Inclusion-Focused Leadership Technical Working Group (TWG) of Diverse Critical Perspectives

  • Sadia Batool, Family Leader and Early Childhood Family Lead for Early Childhood Comprehensive Systems, PA Office of Child Development and Early Learning.
  • Ruby Batz, Ph.D., Assistant Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno College of Education and Human Development/DEC Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice (EISJ) Tri-Chair
  • Brian Deese, NC Part C (Early Intervention) Coordinator/IDEA Infant-Toddler Coordinators Association (ITCA)
  • David Emenheiser, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
  • Maria Estlund, National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) State Policy Specialist
  • Janette Guerra, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP)
  • Thomas McGhee, ECTA Center Assoc. Director/DaSy Center TA Consultant
  • Shantel Meek, Ph.D., Children's Equity Project Director
  • Portia Pope, Ph.D., NC Office of Health Equity and Community Engagement Deputy Director
  • Julie Rand, KS Part B 619 (Early Childhood Special Education) Coordinator
  • Micker Richardson, American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) Head Start Collaboration Office Director
  • Christopher Scott, Ed.D., UNC LEADS Executive Director and Assistant Professor at University of NC- Chapel Hill School of Education
  • Sanaa Sharrieff, Family Leader
  • Seena Skelton, Ph.D., Midwest and Plains Equity Assistance Center (MAP Center) Director, Great Lakes Equity Center Director of Operations
  • Mandy Sorge, Ed.D., National Association of State Leaders in Early Education (NASLEE) Executive Director
  • Xigrid Soto-Boykin, Ph.D., Children's Equity Project Director of Language Justice & Learning Equity and Assistant Research Professor at Arizona State University
  • Sherri Killins Stewart Ed.D., BUILD Initiative Director of Systems Alignment and Integration and Co-Director of State Services
  • Kristina Trujillo-Stephens, Family Leader
  • Keashia Walker, NC Part B 619 (Early Childhood Special Education) Co-Coordinator

Equity- and Inclusion-Focused Leadership Planning Team

  • Sheresa Blanchard, DaSy Center TA Consultant
  • Sherri Britt Williams, ECTA Center Assoc. Director/Family Leader
  • Debbie Cate, ECTA Center TA Specialist
  • Alyson Cavanaugh, ECTA Center TA Specialist
  • Sherry Franklin, ECTA Center TA Consultant
  • Christine Harradine, ECTA Center TA Specialist
  • Christina Kasprzak, ECTA Center Director
  • Grace Kelley, DaSy Center Director
  • Alex Lazara, ECTA Center Web Developer/Designer and Multimedia Lead
  • Peggy Kemp, DEC Executive Director
  • Schatzi McCarthy, ECTA Center Assoc. Director
  • Sonia Sabater, ECTA Center TA Associate
  • Sharon Walsh, ECTA Center TA Consultant

Feedback Groups

  • ECTA/NASDSE 619 Leadership Group
  • ECTA Part C Racial Equity Learning Community & ITCA reps
  • ECTA Staff
  • Office of Head Start State Collaboration Directors
  • DEC Family Leadership Advisory Group
  • 2023 NASLEE Round Table Participants
  • 2023 NASDSE Conference Attendees

Attitudes of Equity- and Inclusion-Focused Leaders

As a leader, you play a vital role in dismantling inequities that impact children with suspected or identified disabilities. This isn't a linear or easy process, and requires you to understand the critical perspectives of families, staff of color, and those with disabilities.

Equity- and inclusion-focused leaders share five attitudes:

You must continuously reflect on your biases and assumptions to gain understanding of how they lead to action—personally, and as an organization or system.

Understand your positionality—what you know about yourself, rather than how you interact with other people—for example:

  • gender
  • ability
  • education
  • income
  • race
  • ethnicity
  • languages
  • family structure
  • location

Your positionality impacts how you are perceived by others, as well as the topics and experiences you are more or less likely to understand personally based on lived experience. When you are aware of your positionality, you can more easily recognize when you are a community insider and when you aren't.

Practice cultural humility when interacting with others' identities different from your own by:

  • reflecting on your cultural norms, assumptions, and expectations
  • developing awareness for how lived experience influences interpretations
  • cultivating respectful and curious attitudes about others' lived experience, and recognizing them to be as valid as your own

Practicing cultural humility sometimes means holding two seemingly contradictory ideas at the same time, and recognizing that more than one idea, custom, or solution can be valid. For example:

  • It is true that therapists help children with disabilities.
  • It is also true that some accepted therapeutic practices are ableist, like forcing children with autism to establish eye contact to mask their disability.

In all aspects of your work, ask:

  • Am I minimizing the impact of race, ethnicity, language, income, or disability?
  • How does this decision, policy, procedure, or practice affect those with a positionality and identities different from my own?
  • Who am I including, and who am I leaving out?
  • Who else must be included in this conversation?

You never fully "arrive" at being an equity- and inclusion-focused leader. Instead:

  • Commit to disrupting beliefs, attitudes, and actions that uphold biases within yourself, your organization, and early childhood systems.
  • Avoid the temptation to be overreactive, or to strive for perfection. Recognize that the process won't be perfect, and that it is okay to make mistakes.
  • Admit when you do not know something. Make time to learn and consult with others.
  • Make time to reflect on things. Recognize when something you said or did was harmful—even if it was unintentional.
  • Resolve to do better next time.

Cycle of Equity-Focused Leadership

The goal is not to check items off a list and be finished, but rather engage in a continuous cycle:

  1. Learn
  2. Reflect
  3. Take Action
  4. Evaluate

  • Learn the historic roots of inequities in today's early childhood systems, for example:
    • the institutionalization of children and adults with disabilities
    • the segregation of Black and White children
    • the impact of English-only laws for children who are dual language learners
    • the impact of boarding schools for Indigenous children
    • the impact of redlining
  • Learn about the current racial and income inequities that exist at the federal level, but also at your state and local levels.
  • Learn about ableism, racism, other forms of oppression, and how they manifest in early childhood systems.
  • Learn how expectations within organizations (for example, perfection or professionalism) can maintain inequities, hindering the building of knowledge and skills that support equity- and inclusion-focused initiatives.

Reflection can happen in different ways, for example:

  • identifying which ideas, practices, and policies currently in place uphold inequities
  • thinking about how beliefs, attitudes, and actions can be improved to address inequities
  • journaling or discussing thoughts with colleagues
Negative Emotions

Reflecting on inequity can make you feel sad, uncomfortable, or guilty—this is normal! Use these feelings to develop compassion and empathy for yourself and those around you. Don't allow discomfort to stop you from taking action.

  • Prioritize taking action.
  • Guide teams to set goals, and take concrete actions to make equity and inclusion the focus of discussions, initiatives, policies, and procedures—especially when collaborating with other organizations and systems.
  • Don't be afraid to have difficult conversations with team members with positionalities different from your own.
  • Repair communication breakdowns.

As new initiatives, goals, policies, professional development, and practices are implemented:

  • Evaluate how well your actions—or those of your team or organization—successfully met equity- and inclusion-focused goals.
  • Gather and analyze data using formal and informal methods, for example, group discussions with team members, anonymous surveys, focus groups, federal or state data reporting, or external evaluations.

Actions for Equity- and Inclusion-Focused Leadership

Systems change work is inherently collaborative, so it must include leaders across systems at all levels, especially community insiders most impacted by past and current inequities within the system and its policies or practices. When you take action with your fellow team members, you can co-create equitable and inclusive early childhood systems where all children and families can thrive.

Each of the five actions includes indicators across four levels of change:

  • Individual change includes personal responsibility in planning and action.
  • Interpersonal change refers to interactions between people.
  • Organizational change includes policies, procedures, and practices at the organizational or program level.
  • Systemic change refers to application across institutions or sectors serving children with disabilities and their families.

You can use these indicators to identify:

  • strengths and areas for improvement
  • topics for building internal capacity through professional development
  • equity-focused priorities
  • progress toward equity- and inclusion-focused goals

Co-creating an equitable and inclusive early childhood system requires time to learn about the historical and current inequities that children of color, children with disabilities, and their families experience. Leaders must reflect on their assumptions and biases, and open themselves up to new ways of doing work within the system, which also requires time for unlearning and engaging in self-reflection. If leaders react to things too quickly, making sustainable and impactful changes will be more difficult.

Self-Reflection Questions

  • How will I engage in learning, unlearning, and self-reflection to identify and disrupt historical and current inequities affecting people who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, of color, or that have been systematically marginalized based on their race, ethnicity, languages, ability, income, or disability?
  • How can I strengthen my capacity to lead in equitable and inclusive ways?
  • What skills do I need to lead others toward dismantling racism, ableism, and other forms of oppression within policies and practices in early childhood systems?
  • How will I respond to individuals, organizations, and systems that resist equity- and inclusion-focused work?

Individual

  • SP1:

    Leaders identify and intentionally consider assumptions and biases they have about groups of people based on race, ethnicity, disability, country of origin, education, and economic level—and how those assumptions affect behaviors, decisions, and actions.

  • SP2:

    Leaders know and communicate equity requirements in IDEA, including references to referral, identification, service delivery, and culturally competent and linguistically responsive services.

Interpersonal

  • SP3:

    Leaders get feedback on how their communication and actions with others affect trust and relationships. They understand when to adjust communication to disrupt ableism, racism, and other forms of oppression and be more precise, responsive, respectful, and inclusive.

  • SP4:

    Leaders co-partner with people with disabilities and those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color to hear their insights and ideas when investigating and addressing the root causes of disparities for children with disabilities and their families.

Organizational

  • SP5:

    Leaders learn about the current system disparities (for example, biases in assessments).

  • SP6:

    Leaders understand how to use implementation and improvement science principles to change policies and practices, so they intentionally incorporate the culture, history, values, and needs of the community.

  • SP7:

    Leaders examine their current leadership style, strengths, and areas for growth. Leaders identify action steps for using and developing strengths that can help co-create an equitable, inclusive system.

Systemic

  • SP8:

    Leaders learn about the historical events that contribute to the current inequities children with disabilities, all children of color, and those experiencing poverty experience in systems serving young children and their families (for example, the historical removal of Indigenous languages and teachings).

  • SP9:

    Leaders reflect on their various identities (for example, race, ethnicity, ability, income, education, religion, gender) to identify advantages and disadvantages they experience when collaborating across systems and organizations.

  • SP10:

    Leaders learn what ableism is and how it manifests across systems serving children with disabilities and their families.

Leaders must work with others to identify and remove barriers to access before co-creating positive, fair, and nurturing experiences and outcomes for children with disabilities and their families. They also must make equity and inclusion important aspects of all work, clearly defining that the goal is to better serve children with disabilities, those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color, as well as those experiencing poverty.

Self-Reflection Questions

  • How will I align teams, structures, processes, and policies that support equitable and inclusive identification, access, service delivery, and for outcomes children with disabilities and their families?
  • When making changes and improvements, how do I support those with disabilities and all people of color who have been historically or are currently marginalized?
  • How do I make changes and improvements sustainable?

Individual

  • AS1:

    Leaders make equity and inclusion non-negotiable when setting priorities, recruiting, hiring, forming teams, selecting who is promoted, choosing the topics for professional development, and deciding how to allocate funding.

  • AS2:

    Leaders model how to disrupt racism and ableism when they show up in policies, procedures, data collection, assessment practices, and intergroup interactions.

Interpersonal

  • AS3:

    Leaders sustain equity-focused discussions over time by co-creating a psychologically and physically safe working environment where team members can make mistakes, learn, and unlearn.

  • AS4:

    Leaders co-partner with people most marginalized, including people with disabilities and those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color, to identify barriers and create targeted, measurable action plans to improve equity and inclusion. They do not place all the responsibility on co-partners or impose emotional, psychological, or physical harm.

Organizational

  • AS5:

    Leaders change policies, programs, practices, and working environments that create and reinforce barriers for historically and currently marginalized team members, children, and families, including those with disabilities and all people of color.

  • AS6:

    Leaders support and guide implementation of equity- and inclusion-focused action plans within all levels of the organization.

Systemic

  • AS7:

    Leaders use their role and influence to improve equity and inclusion for children with disabilities and their families when collaborating across sectors by identifying examples of ableism, explicitly stating the disparities in early childhood systems, and working together to address these inequities in concrete, actionable, and measurable ways.

Leaders must recognize that co-creating equitable and inclusive early childhood systems requires collaborating with diverse critical perspectives across their organization and others. Equity- and inclusion-focused leaders can articulate how various systems (for example, early intervention and special education, health system, economic system) impact access to services for children with suspected or identified delays in the early childhood systems. They co-partner with individuals, organizations, and systems to address disparities and create sustainable, comprehensive change.

Self-Reflection Questions

  • How can I establish a shared goal for equitable and inclusive access, services, supports, and outcomes for children with disabilities and their families?
  • How will I co-partner with others to impact change at multiple levels of early childhood systems?
  • How will I build constructive relationships and alliances?
  • How will I leverage my position and influence to ensure leadership teams, decisions, policies, practices, and priorities reflect the diversity of children and families served (for example, race, ethnicity, languages, or ability)?

Individual

  • CP1:

    Leaders engage in ongoing professional development and self-reflection to identify and strengthen ways to center the experiences of people with disabilities and those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color when co-partnering with people to plan, implement, and evaluate policies, programs, services, and practice initiatives.

Interpersonal

  • CP2:

    Leaders create environments where team members with disabilities and all people of color can share their stories in psychologically safe ways.

  • CP3:

    Leaders intentionally co-partner with representatives of tribal communities to co-learn and collaboratively identify community strengths and strategies for removing barriers to accessing services and supports tailored to the tribe's priorities, culture, and values.

Organizational

  • CP4:

    Leaders create and implement action plans that integrate the equity- and inclusion-focused recommendations of all the team members and family representatives, especially those with disabilities and all people of color.

  • CP5:

    Leaders model shared decision-making, collaborating, and creating environments where people with disabilities and people of color have equitable representation and influence across all levels of leadership (state/entity level to local level).

Systemic

  • CP6:

    Leaders co-partner with other organizations across the state or entity to provide equity- and inclusion-focused coordinated funding and systems that address disparities and reduce barriers for children with disabilities and all children of color and their families.

  • CP7:

    Leaders co-partner with others across systems, organizational levels, and communities to promote coordination and communication across systems.

Leaders must focus on professional development that strengthens the capacity of team members to identify and address inequities impacting children with suspected or identified disabilities and their families, especially those of color and those experiencing poverty. Strengthening capacity includes:

  • ensuring team members have ongoing professional development on topics of equity and inclusion
  • providing ongoing support for applying learning and practicing new approaches
  • creating mentorship, training, and promotion opportunities for team members of color and those with disabilities
  • identifying and leveraging coordinated professional development opportunities in other organizations and systems to reduce and eliminate disparities

Self-Reflection Questions

  • How will I create space for people to discover and develop their identity, relationships, and capacity to support equity and inclusion?
  • How will I facilitate professional development that specifically addresses equity and inclusion and centers the lived experience of those with disabilities, those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color?
  • How will I ensure professional development provides preparation for—and promotion to—leadership roles for historically and currently marginalized or underrepresented team members?
  • How will I create leadership roles for families of children with disabilities, especially those who have been historically or are currently marginalized?

Individual

  • SC1:

    Leaders identify professional development topics for their team members to have the dispositions, knowledge, and skills necessary to embed equity and inclusion in all aspects of their work.

  • SC2:

    Leaders embed equity and inclusion topics into discussions throughout all components of planning and implementing ongoing state- or entity-wide professional development opportunities (needs analysis, design, experiences, and evaluation).

Interpersonal

  • SC3:

    Leaders co-partner with professionals, community insiders, and families across all levels, especially those of color and those with disabilities, to identify existing early childhood systems barriers they can address through professional development and family leadership development support.

  • SC4:

    Leaders consult with equity consultants to develop, implement, and evaluate the impact of equity- and inclusion-focused professional development plans and supports (for example, conduct an equity audit).

Organizational

  • SC5:

    Leaders co-partner and share leadership responsibilities with people at all levels of the organization, including those with disabilities and those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color to support buy-in and sustainability for leadership.

  • SC6:

    Leaders consult with people at all levels of the organization receiving professional development to ensure that the support provided is useful and relevant for implementing equitable and inclusive processes and practices. They use this feedback to inform ongoing professional development opportunities.

  • SC7:

    Leaders require everyone in the organization to receive ongoing professional development on ableism and inclusion, systemic racism, bias, culturally sustaining practices, the historical ways that people with disabilities, emergent bilingual children, and those of color have been marginalized, and strategies for supporting marginalized children and families.

Systemic

  • SC8:

    Leaders co-partner with people across entities and systems to identify existing equity-focused professional development supports to make organizational and system-wide changes to reduce disparities and eliminate barriers in early childhood systems.

All team members across the organization make decisions daily about how they will use data. Leaders set expectations that team members use data to guide decision-making about removing barriers to equitable access to inclusive experiences and positive outcomes for children and families. They use qualitative and quantitative data to identify and address disparities and evaluate outcomes. They also ensure that team members, including families and direct service providers, share their perspectives and stories as data is collected, analyzed, and disaggregated by demographic variable to identify gaps.

Self-Reflection Questions

  • How will I use and share data to advance equity and inclusion for children with disabilities and their families?
  • How will I ensure that data collected are relevant and helpful in identifying and dismantling barriers to access and positive outcomes for children with disabilities across demographic variables (for example, race, ethnicity, language, ability, region, or income)?
  • How will I ensure family stories and other qualitative family data are included in data collection and analysis efforts?
  • How will my organization make data-based decisions to address inequities in early childhood systems with input from all team members?
  • What monitoring and accountability structures will be in place to ensure that individuals, organizations, and systems I co-partner with are meeting their goals to eliminate and address disparities in early childhood systems?
  • How will we use data leadership competencies to ensure all children and families have equitable access to inclusive experiences and positive outcomes?

Individual

  • UD1:

    Leaders ensure that all data collected, analyzed, and reported are disaggregated by demographic variables (for example, race, ethnicity, language, disability, income, geographic region).

  • UD2:

    Leaders transparently and accessibly share all data with families, other relevant parties, and community members by using visuals, plain language, translating to different languages, and using several communication methods.

  • UD3:

    Leaders review the DaSy Data Leadership Competencies for Part C and Part B 619 and identify resources to strengthen the competencies that specifically address equity and inclusion. The competencies specifically addressing equity and inclusion are DC3, DC4, DC8, DC11, IN8, FD5, and FD6.

Interpersonal

  • UD4:

    Leaders co-partner with families and team members at all levels of the system—particularly those with disabilities and those who are Black, Latine(o/a), Indigenous, and all people of color—to gather perspectives, determine needs, collect, analyze, and interpret data to identify disparities and reduce barriers in the early childhood systems.

  • UD5:

    Leaders co-partner with families and team members at all levels of the system—especially those of color and those with disabilities—to center their perspectives on and strategies for identifying missing data, generating solutions to find missing data, and increasing representation of racially, culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse families.

Organizational

  • UD6:

    Leaders co-partner with team members, including families and equity consultants, to conduct equity analyses of the organization (it's policies, procedures, services, indicators of quality, and so on) to determine the extent to which they address the needs of children with disabilities and their families, especially those of color and those who do not speak English.

  • UD7:

    Leaders ensure that the qualitative and quantitative data collected and analyzed are disaggregated by demographic variables to identify disparities and disproportionality in access, participation, representation, and outcomes in the early childhood systems.

  • UD8:

    Leaders co-create accountability systems to ensure policies and procedures to advance equity and inclusion are implemented and continuously monitored at the internal level (team members and working environment) and across the early childhood services the organization provides.

Systemic

  • UD9:

    Leaders co-partner with people across systems—including families and team members at all levels of systems, particularly those with disabilities and of color—to collect, interpret, and use disaggregated data to identify policies or procedures that create inequity, and to measure and monitor changes and improvements in equity and inclusion across early childhood systems.

References

  1. Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center (2023). Fact Sheet: Advancing Racial Equity in Early Intervention and Preschool Special Education. https://ectacenter.org/topics/racialequity/factsheet-racialequity-2023.asp
  2. Ferri, B. A., & Connor, D. J. (2005). Tools of exclusion: Race, disability, and (re) segregated education. Teachers College Record, 107(3), 453–474. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9620.2005.00483.x
  3. Hirpa, D. A. (2021). Exclusion of children with disabilities from early childhood education: Including approaches of social exclusion. Cogent Education, 8(1), https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2021.1952824
  4. Meek, S., Smith, L., Allen, R., Edyburn, K., Williams, C., Fabes, R., McIntosh, K., Garcia, E., Takanishi, R., Gordon, L., Jimenez-Castellanos, O., Hemmeter, M., Gilliam, W., Pontier, R. (2020). Start with Equity: From the Early Years to the Early Grades. https://cep.asu.edu/start-with-equity
  5. Meek, S., Soto-Boykin, X., Blevins, D., & Catherine, E. (2024). Equity for Children in the United States. Cambridge Elements.
  6. Morgan, P. L., Woods, A. D., Wang, Y., Hillemeier, M. M., Farkas, G., & Mitchell, C. (2020). Are schools in the US South using special education to segregate students by race?. Exceptional Children, 86(3), 255–275. https://doi.org/10.1177/0014402919868486
  7. Purdue, K. (2009). Barriers to and facilitators of inclusion for children with disabilities in early childhood education. Contemporary Issues in Early Childhood, 10(2), 133–143. https://doi.org/10.2304/ciec.2009.10.2.133
  8. Rosales, J., & Walker, T. (2021). The racist beginnings of standardized testing. National Education Association. https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/racist-beginnings-standardized-testing
  9. Stewart, S.K, Stover-Wright, M, & Ray, A (2017). Equity Action Framework. BUILD Initiative. https://buildinitiative.org/resource-library/equity-action-framework/
  10. U.S. Department of Education (2023). 44th Annual Report to Congress on the Implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 2022. https://sites.ed.gov/idea/2022-individuals-with-disabilities-education-act-annual-report-to-congress
  11. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services & U.S. Department of Education (2023). Policy statement on the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood programs. https://sites.ed.gov/idea/idea-files/policy-statement-inclusion-of-children-with-disabilities-in-early-childhood-programs/
  12. Zero to Three (2023). State of the Babies Yearbook 2023. https://stateofbabies.org/key-findings/