The IDEA Partnership convenes stakeholders around the issues they share. Using a Participatory Framework, we explore evidence based practices, co-create tools that build understanding and foster interaction that changes practice. As we explore perspectives on issues, affiliation builds and there is support for a more formal infrastructure, a community of practice (CoP).

Three long standing CoPs are co-convened by the IDEA Partnership:

The National Community of Practice on School Behavioral Health

The National Community of Practice on ASD

Several other groups convene using the CoP framework and are informally coached by the IDEA Partnership.

Each national CoP affiliates national organizations, family groups, state teams and the national technical assistance centers with content expertise on the issue. The 'community' remains focused more broadly on the issue while 'practice groups' explore specific dimensions of the issue. Each CoP convened by the IDEA Partnership operates at multiple levels of scale (national, state, local, site, individual) working at the intersection of policy, practice and people.