We at the North Carolina Coalition for Inclusion, Not Expulsions envision a North Carolina early care and education system where Black children and families have equitable opportunity to participate in early care and education settings.
It’s a bold vision that requires a powerful strategic action plan to achieve.
How We Developed our Strategic Action Plan
We developed our plan using state and national resources, plus insights from on-the-ground and academic experts from the Coalition, North Carolina and across the country.
- In 2022, we developed an initial logic model.
- In 2023, we used this model plus feedback and insights from dozens of experts to identify our goals and how we’ll get there.
- In 2024, we finalized and launched the plan.
Our Goals
To realize our vision, the Coalition is pursuing bold policy and practice solutions that will lead to the following outcomes.
By 2027, we will identify and share innovative, actionable, replicable solutions and tools to eliminate racial inequities in preschool suspensions, expulsions and exclusionary practices.
By 2029, North Carolina will take steps to eliminate early care and education suspensions, expulsions and exclusionary practices across the state.
By 2034, North Carolina has equitable opportunities for Black children to participate in early care and education settings.
How We’ll Get There
We have identified four action steps where we as a Coalition will take a leadership role to accomplish our shared goals. We will:
- Directly name and address bias and racism within the early care and education system.
- Ensure early care and education professionals and communities across North Carolina have the resources and tools they need to build positive relationships between education professionals and parents.
- Create a matrix of best practices based on what we learn from promising direct service model programs and practices in North Carolina and across the country.
- Create and share a set of alternative tools and resources for early education professionals and families to encourage positive responses to children’s behaviors.
We will also support and amplify others’ efforts to ensure:
- North Carolina has a statewide data collection system that includes race and tracks suspensions and expulsions across all early care and education programs.
- Educators and families have more access to affordable mental health resources.
- The early care and education workforce is paid adequately and has access to benefits such as health insurance and paid time off.
As with any action plan, this is a living document that will evolve over time. But the Coalition will remain focused on its overarching vision: to ensure Black children and families have equitable opportunity to participate in early care and education in North Carolina.