The DEC advocacy webinar held April 29
th offered some insight into activities taking place across the states. In particular, while the Kansas Subdivision advocacy arm is well-established, and the Iowa Subdivision has collaborated with a number of other organizations given their place in the presidential election cycle, other subdivisions may be relatively new to building policy and advocacy networking and action. Other subdivisions may be working to re-energize their advocacy efforts. Our hope within national DEC CAN is to provide guidance and support to those subdivisions that are working on their networking and advocacy efforts for children with exceptionalities and their families within their states and communities. One of the best ways to get started is to share a story with DEC to be published in a future e-brief. Submissions to the "What's Happening in the States?" section can cover policy victories, advocacy opportunities, and/or current issues in your state, whether your subdivision has had a role at the state-level or not. In other words, you can use this platform to simply disseminate information to the larger DEC audience to enhance awareness of issues occurring near you that may be of interest to other DEC members. Please send those subdivision advocacy stories to share!
Contact office@dec-sped.org or DEC CAN Coordinator anlyons@kent.edu to share what's happening in your state or Subdivision in a future issue of YES DEC CAN!