Mission, Core Values & History
We envision a time when all public schools welcome and successfully educate all students, regardless of their abilities or background. In order to achieve this goal, we empower NYC charter schools to develop high quality inclusive educational environments by providing professional development opportunities, resources, school-based guidance and access to local and national best practices and renowned special populations’ experts.
Core Values
Equity
For us, it’s not about
getting the same, it’s
about all students getting what they need.
Persistence
We’re committed to sustained advocacy – within classrooms as well as at the city, state and federal levels – in order to secure equity and access for all students.
Collaboration
We seek to break the special education and MLL/ELL silos in collaboration with our partners. Our collective efficacy will close gaps for students.
Empathy
Human connections and diverse perspectives enable us to achieve meaningful reflection, planning, and change.
Curiosity
As lifelong learners, we are always asking ourselves, is there a better way to do it and how can we do it together?
Our History
In 2011, the New York City Charter School Center merged a consortium of borough-based special education cooperatives into a citywide membership program. The Collaborative for Inclusive Education now serves over 280 NYC public charter schools, providing access to professional development, expert technical assistance and advocacy in support of schools’ efforts to provide high quality education to their special populations.
When we began, our work centered around the basics of ensuring compliant programs. Over the years – and in response to schools’ commitment and progress – our programming evolved and broadened to include supports and partnerships that grow an “all means all” mindset, strengthen inclusive pedagogy, and ensure favorable public policies and practices. Though we were founded with the purpose of exclusively serving students with disabilities, we have since expanded the scope of our work to include support for multilingual learners, social emotional learning, positive behavior supports, culturally responsive teaching, and more.
2025-26 highlights
As a sector leader and advisor, the Collaborative for Inclusive Education defined NYCPS’s implementation and rollout of the 10% increase in funding for charter school special education students in the 20-60% service delivery category.
The Collaborative team added 26 PD sessions to the Charter Center’s online PD on Demand platform, for a total of 78 virtual courses designed to build the capacity and skill sets of special populations leaders and educators.
277 charter school campuses engaged in Collaborative membership during the 2025-26 school year.
The Collaborative offered 141 in-person, virtual, and hybrid PD sessions (17% more than the previous year!) to empower school leaders and special populations leads and educators.
Collaborative team members spent a combined 386 hours assisting and supporting charter school educators through personalized on-site campus visits and virtual consultations.
The Collaborative facilitates three online Learning Communities (Counselor/Social Workers, High School, and MLL/ELL), serving 1,915 NYC charter school leaders and educators. The groups share resources, provide compliance support, and share best practices from the field.
The Collaborative team represented the NYC charter sector at city and state-wide conferences this past year, delivering 7 presentations highlighting data and best practices to advance the special education and multilingual learner education fields.
