(June 2016)  The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) offers states an opportunity to develop or refine a strategic vision for education to chart their own path forward. It also requires extensive outreach and engagement efforts, and CCSSO has released a stakeholder engagement guide, Let’s Get this Conversation Started, to help states engage with stakeholders to develop and implement their ESSA plans.

Parent Centers can use this guide to partner with their state education agencies in ensuring that the voices of parents, especially parents of students with disabilities, are included in the important decisions that states make about the implementation of ESSA.  You may also be interested in the two guides that CCSSO published subsequently:

Let’s Keep This Conversation Going | November 2016 | This tool provides an array of engagement strategies and successful state examples of stakeholder engagement around ESSA.

Let’s Continue this Conversation | December 2017 | As the implementation of ESSA begins, now is the time to reiterate your commitment and turn these new connections into long-term relationships by establishing sustainable ways to continue to listen to, inform and learn from your stakeholders.

(Links updated and resources added, March 2019)