Advocates and activists track legislation for a few reasons. Usually, mission driven, we seek strategy that has worked in other regions of the country in order to propose solutions to the issue we wish to impact.
When we’re looking to influence change in policy to meet public need, it’s good to gather a frame of reference that: a.) gives us language to develop initiatives in our own local and state arena b.) allows broader perspective, and c.) can connect us to leaders and coalitions in other states who also move to make policy change happen. Those connections are the secret sauce that strengthens local, state, and federal initiatives and campaigns.
There are several methods to track legislation ranging from SaaS (software as a service) and apps for smartphones and other devices to membership services on legislative websites like LegiScan (free) which can be set to search and send reporting on keywords and topics.
One of the best ways to gain momentum and impact in policy is to track state level legislation in addition to federal.
The Alliance Against Seclusion and Restraint has developed a simple tracking document and will use it as a resource for connecting, finding similar groups with which to join forces, and studying successful legislation in order to impact state by state.
We welcome feedback and/or input on your state legislation and want to be connected to folks across the country on local school system’s progress on data collection, reporting, and incidence rates.
Please enter your information on our contact form so we can stay in touch with updates and state level trends and policies on seclusion and restraint, and also so we can gain strength in numbers — to impact seclusion and restraint federally, on a national level — we need to hear from you!
