Braided Funding
Special Education Director: Our special education funding isn’t big enough to cover Collaborative Teaching professional development for our whole faculty. Maybe we should just plan to include our special educators?
Me: But we know effective co-teaching practices rely on full buy-in and understanding of everybody - the special educators, the general educators, the paraprofessionals, and the specialists who push in. Besides, there are many general educators teaching solo who have students with IEPs in their classes. Don’t they all need to improve their collaboration?
Special Education Director: I agree and frankly the Joyful Inclusion Initiative aligns with our strategic plan. I just don’t know how we could fund it.
Me: What about braided funding?
Special Education Director: Braided funding? What’s that?
This Special Education Director had heard about the results her neighboring district was seeing from implementation of the Joyful Inclusion packages.
She reached out to me to discuss the instructional challenges her district was facing and share her goals for improvement. She was pleased to hear about our sequential system with opportunity options for teachers to tailor inclusive strategies to their own situations.
We had discussed the coaching support her building principals and teachers would need from the district coaches and our Joyful Inclusion Coach. It looked like we were moving forward until we hit the funding dilemma.
I was surprised to discover that she had not heard about braided funding. I thought about my experiences and checked with my Joyful Inclusion Coaches for some examples:
When I was the Secondary Transition Specialist with the Maryland Department of Education, I collaborated with other state agencies to fund common transition goals.
We combined funding from the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (federal), The Workforce Opportunity Improvement Act (federal) and Rehabilitation Services (federal), and Developmental Disabilities (state). With braided funds, we offered statewide conferences on Transition for P-21 special education teachers, leaders, and transition coordinators, learning side by side with staff from other agencies -- rehabilitation services, developmental disability administration, mental health administration, and independent living centers.
As a section-chief for Specially Designed Instruction at the Maryland State Department of Education, I had the opportunity to work with local leaders in building the capacity of their staff in supporting children and youth with disabilities. Many of the initiatives included working with other departments and/or agencies.
Over time, the State Special Education Department came to own full responsibility for supporting “their” students. As we began the process of braiding funds, all stakeholders came to realize that inclusive education wasn’t about the special educator working in a corner of the classroom, but collaboratively with the classroom teacher and all educational staff.
When technology was needed to support inclusive learning for a computer lab, we reached out to Instructional Technology for a joint venture. To expand effective inclusive preschools, we braided efforts and funding between early childhood special and general education offices. When we wanted to offer national experts for statewide professional learning and coaching, we braided general school improvement and special education funds.
We all quickly realized that so much more could be done when we became a team with a shared vision for success for all children. Pooling resources, both personnel and fiscal allow for a stronger, more resilient, and sustainable program for staff, students, and families.
As Simon Sinek says “Together is Better!”
We share these examples to spark your thinking of what’s possible.
The references below provide step by step guidelines for forming a coalition, identifying common goals, recruiting other partners, establishing agreements of understanding, and co-creating common evaluative measures. Both discuss the benefits of braiding and blending funds from separate silos. While the specifics of their examples may not apply to you, the basic principles will be helpful.
Whether you are looking for funding to support Joyful Inclusion or some other initiative, ask yourself these questions:
Can we truly achieve our purpose if we focus just on “our people”?
Which stakeholders will benefit from expanding our initiative to a wider audience?
What other funding sources are nearby that target similar outcomes?
What other resources could we tap into and offer if we leverage more funding?
When other stakeholders contribute their funding, what else do they contribute (broader goals, committed action, human resources, wider audience)?
How could we create a broader impact by coordinating our efforts?
Let me know your thoughts.
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