Our team was awarded a grant by a private organization in partnership with a local research network to examine disparities in the special education referrals and services provided to young children in New York City (NYC). Our convergent mixed-methods study is exploring how the NYC preschool ecology—consisting of process, people and their positionalities, and practices—influences teachers’ decisions to refer and include minoritized young children who are at risk for or have developmental delays or disabilities. In this colloquium we: (1) describe key issues in the US and the NYC contexts that led to this design; (2) present the study methodology, including its theoretical underpinnings; and (3) discuss implications for systems change in NYC.
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