In the past, parents of children with disabilities have spearheaded several policies for individuals with disabilities. However, little is known about their experiences with legislators. To address this gap, focus groups and surveys about legislative advocacy were conducted with 127 parents of individuals with disabilities across four states. The…

Institutions build armies of alumni advocates to influence legislators and shape public opinion. This article describes two types of alumni advocacy: grasstops and grassroots. Grasstops advocacy engages smaller, targeted groups of alumni who have a stronger, more influential connection with legislators and other public officeholders. Grassroots…

In order to be politically effective, it is necessary for local agricultural education programs to establish relationships with legislators, publicly recognize those that support the program, and have contacts with legislators during legislative sessions. (SB)

This article includes a report from the Select Committee to the NCAI Convention, summarizing their activities to date, the Senate floor debate on whether to continue the committee, and the statements of Kirke Kickingbird and Charles Trimble at a hearing before the Rules Committee in support of S. Res. 405 to continue the committee. (RTS)

Laws and regulations which are the arms of the law, have become solution surrogates, substitutes for mutual citizen and community interaction toward problem identification and resolution. The time is ripe to discourage the passage of more legislation and to encourage the recision of some. (Author)

In this paper, social science utilization is studied as an aspect of legislative decision making. The purposes of the paper are to provide a review of political science literature on state legislatures, offer a theoretical framework for interpreting utilization of social science research, apply the framework to interview data, and generate a…

This handbook, for individuals working with people who have disabilities, is designed to empower them to be a force for meeting the policy challenges in the communities in which they live and work. It is designed to help in channeling one's strength, commitment, and knowledge of the special education field into effective advocacy efforts. The…

This handbook is designed: (1) to empower individuals working with people who have disabilities to be a force for meeting the policy challenges in the communities in which they live and work; and (2) to help them to channel their strength, commitment, and knowledge of the special education field into effective advocacy efforts. The handbook…

The current status of state policy on minimum competency testing in Wisconsin, and the political process that produced that policy, are explored in this report. The document presents the preliminary findings of research conducted for a doctoral dissertation. The research methodology, mentioned only briefly, involved participant observation,…

This handbook is designed to assist special education advocates in developing the capacity to mount an effective advocacy campaign at the state and federal levels. It is divided into the following four separate training modules: (1) "Introduction to Advocacy"; (2) "Understanding the Governmental Process"; (3) "Changing Public Policy"; and (4)…

Discusses the use of lobbying by education interest groups in the political process. Suggests lobbying strategies and techniques effective at the state level. (FMW)

An exploration of the decision-making processes of state legislators on public school finance issues focuses on major school finance changes that occurred in Michigan in 1973 and in Washington and Missouri in 1977. Roll call votes, primarily in the lower chambers of the state legislatures, on both selected amendments and the complete versions of…

Votes of the Senators and Representatives on selected bills deemed important to students covering late 1976 and all of 1977 are presented along with the National Student Association and the National Student Lobby (NSA-NSL) rating of each Congressman. The rating is based on the percentage of times the Congressman voted in favor of the position that…