Research has shown that both young children with disabilities and their peers benefit from participating together in programs and community activities. While there has been much progress to assure that children have these opportunities, challenges still exist. Given the complexity of federal, state and local programs and services that touch the lives of children with disabilities, cross-agency dialogue is an effective mechanism for identifying strategies to address these challenges.
In 2004 the Child Care Bureau, the Administration on Developmental Disabilities,
and the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) held two policy forums in Washington,
DC, to discuss strategies for including young children with disabilities in community-based
settings and activities. These forums included parents, service providers, researchers,
federal, state and local administrators, and technical assistance providers.
Recommendations from the forums included the creation a comprehensive, cross-systems
approach to inclusion and the bringing together of national-level stakeholders to
create and implement a shared vision. Two proceedings documents are available.
High Quality Inclusion Opportunities for Preschool-Age Children with Disabilities (2004) 
(PDF: 371kb)
and Inclusive Early Care and Education Forum Synthesis (2005) (PDF: 62kb) .
In response to these recommendations, the Child Care Bureau, the Office of Head Start, the Administration
on Developmental Disabilities, and OSEP invited states to send cross-agency teams to a strategic planning
initiative in the summer of 2005 known as Expanding Opportunities. The goal of the four participating
states was to increase inclusive opportunities for young children with disabilities and their families and
to make their findings available to other states. In 2010, the number of participating states
was increased to twenty. A brief overview of the Initiative to date is available for download:
Expanding Opportunities: An Interagency Inclusion Initiative (2010) (PDF: 286kb)
At each Expanding Opportunities meeting, state-level representatives from each of the coordinating federal agencies, parents, and others met with their federal colleagues in Chapel Hill, NC. Working in teams, they developed strategies to assure that young children with disabilities have access to quality early care and education programs and services in their communities. The teams have continued their efforts to further develop and implement these strategies upon returning to their home states. The federal partners, through their national and regional technical assistance projects continue to support the state Expanding Opportunities teams.
