Who We Are

    Our Vision & Mission

    We envision a time when all public schools welcome and successfully educate all students, regardless of their abilities or background. In order to achieve this goal, we empower NYC charter schools to develop high quality inclusive educational environments by providing professional development opportunities, resources, school-based guidance and access to local and national best practices and renowned special populations’ experts.

    History

    In 2011, the New York City Charter School Center merged a consortium of borough-based special education cooperatives into a citywide membership program. The Collaborative for Inclusive Education now serves 190 NYC public charter schools, providing access to professional development, expert technical assistance and advocacy in support of schools’ efforts to provide high quality education to their special populations.

    When we began, our work centered around the basics of ensuring compliant programs. Over the years – and in response to schools’ commitment and progress – our programming evolved and expanded to include supports and partnerships that grow the inclusive mindset, engender best instructional practices, and ensure favorable public policies and practices. We’ve also expanded the focus to include English Language Learners and issues such as equity, social emotional learning, and culturally responsive teaching.

    By the Numbers

    298

    More than 89% of the sector, or 298 charter campuses, are members of The Collaborative for Inclusive Education.

    140

    The Collaborative offers over 140 professional development workshops, trainings, conferences and webinars annually.

    2,200

    More than 2,200 educators, leaders and coaches attend the Collaborative’s programs each year.

    450

    The Collaborative team spends approximately 450 hours in schools each year, conducting classroom observations and providing one-on-one consultations.

    900

    The Collaborative has certified over 900 educators in crisis prevention.

    49

    The five Collaborative team members have a combined 49 years of experience in teaching special populations and leading school-based support programs.

    Our Evolution

    2011

    NYC Special Education Collaborative founded to support schools’ compliance-related needs.

    2012

    Developed differentiated supports through tiered levels of membership. Offered approximately 30 workshops a year.

    2013

    Team grew to enable school-based observations and consultations. Programs shift to supporting instruction and school-wide culture.

    2014

    Mission revised to focus on inclusive education. Brought small group of NYC charterss to visit inclusive schools across the country (LA and Boston).

    2015

    Advocacy resulted in $7.5M in support of Committees on Special Education for charters. Offered nearly 80 workshops a year, including new in-school workshops for teaching staff. Hired an ELL Specialist to offered compliance guidance.

    2016

    Collaborative expands programming to include ELL supports and social emotional workshops. Established communities of practice for high schools and counseling staff. Launched a Leadership Coalition for Special Populations.

    2017

    Focus shifts to include equity and culturally responsive teaching. Doubled the offerings and fully integrated ELL programming into the Collaborative schedule with over 100 PD opportunities.

    2019

    Name officially changes to the Collaborative for Inclusive Education. Programming includes opportunities for educators to unpack racism, ableism, language discrimination, and identity discrimination and to reflect on how anti-bias education intersects with inclusive education.

    2020

    We shifted along with our schools to online supports, hosting dozens of sessions on educating during a global pandemic.

    2021

    We expanded the number of membership levels we offer to respond to the diverse array of school needs.

    2022

    We offered over a hundred trainings and workshops in a hybrid format in response to the evolving post-COVID adult learning landscape.

    2023

    We created our annual S.P.A.R.K. award to honor the legacy of our late colleague Jeannine King.

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