Peer to Peer is a school-based program designed to foster inclusive communities by intentionally connecting students with and without disabilities. Through shared experiences and guided by dedicated staff, the program emphasizes mutual participation rather than a hierarchical "helping" model, ensuring all students engage equally.

This Inclusive Mindset Bite reminds us that true inclusion means everyone, including people with disabilities, feels a genuine sense of belonging in everyday life. An inclusive mindset values diversity, embraces neurodiversity, and recognizes that no brain type is better than another.

The purpose of this Bite is to introduce you to the ways that developmental and behavioral approaches are being integrated in early childhood education. Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs) are evidence-based approaches that combine principles of applied behavior analysis with developmental science to support social communication, play, and learning. They take place in everyday routines and natural environments, using child-directed activities and interests to increase motivation and engagement.

Creating inclusive schools begins with meaningful relationships. When students with and without disabilities have authentic opportunities to connect, learn together, and share experiences, the result is greater belonging, understanding, and growth for everyone. Involving peers is not a side effort—it is central to building communities where all students feel valued and supported.

Dr. Erik Carter, a leader in the area of Peer-Mediated Interventions (PMI), has demonstrated through numerous studies that building meaningful peer relationships is essential for belonging, social connection, and learning in school. 

Paraprofessionals play a key role in promoting inclusion, learning, and belonging for students with autism and other developmental disabilities. Their primary focus should be on facilitating social and academic engagement by connecting students with peers, teachers, and shared classroom experiences rather than acting as primary instructors. 

In this Bite, you will learn how the language we use influences our understanding, expectations, and interactions with Autistic students. You will also explore the concept of spiky profiles and why functioning labels do not capture the full picture of a person’s abilities and challenges. 

Explore the Peer Friendship Formula and how repeated, shared experiences can create opportunities for authentic friendships between students with and without disabilities. Learn how sufficient support and valued roles help create meaningful Peer to Peer experiences where all students are equally valued.

This START Connecting article addresses the importance of using scripted interventions in schools to manage student behavior effectively. It defines intervention scripts as detailed guidelines that help educators provide consistent and predictable responses to student behavior, which in turn supports student self-regulation and engagement. The article highlights the benefits of such scripts, including reducing emotional responses from staff, preventing behavioral escalation, and increasing the fidelity of behavior plans.

The Classroom Environment and Teaching Assessment (CETA) is a tool designed to help teachers and school teams proactively explore and strengthen inclusive classroom practices. It supports the creation of effective learning environments for all students, particularly those with higher support needs.

The Deliberate Coaching Google Site is a resource study for the book Deliberate Coaching: A Toolbox for Accelerating Teacher Performance by Paul Gavoni, Ed.D and Nicholas Weatherly, Ph.D. 

Effective Teaming and Meeting Mechanics are processes and tools for efficient and effective meetings to capitalize on the strengths and experiences of a group of people with common goals. The most efficient and effective meetings adhere to a defined process and agreed-upon guidelines that the group follows to execute the goals of the meeting.  The Effective Teaming and Meeting Mechanics processes and tools are both universal for all meetings and customized for specific types of meetings so that it will function as a resource for various meetings. 

This START Connecting Article explores how girls with autism are amazing and unique in their own ways, just like boys with autism. They have strengths and challenges, just like boys. However, their autism manifests in ways that can be quite different from boys.

This resource list provides a wide variety of information that demonstrates the landscape of research and unique lived experiences of girls and women with autism. This is meant to highlight areas of strength, encourage better supports, and promote greater awareness of autism in girls.

This is document contains a list of books organized by age and topic and the categories of books include: younger children, older children and pre-teens, adolescents and young adults, health and puberty, sexuality, and parents. This book list provides a wide variety of information that demonstrates research and unique lived experiences of girls and women with autism. 

iQuest is short for independence quest—a practical and dynamic tool designed to help users identify and practice skills that lead to real-life independence at home and school. 

This START Connecting article explores Preschool Life Skills (PLS), which is a research-based, supplemental curriculum that provides a set of tools to help teach important social and life skills for school success. The PLS program includes a set of lessons developed by Dr. Gregory Hanley and colleagues to increase skills in making requests, following directions, tolerating delay, and developing friendships

The Preschool Life Skills website has all the materials needed to teach PLS in your classroom, including a description of the program, a questionnaire, lesson plans, data collection forms, practice scenarios, and additional supporting materials. Explore the site and try some lessons to see how it changes the culture of your early childhood classroom and the skills of your preschoolers (Hint: The lessons work with kindergarteners, too).

This resource outlines adaptations made by Peer to Peer programs during the COVID-19 Pandemic as reported by participants in the study by Pulido et al. (2024). This resource is intended to be a tool for Peer to Peer teams to consider whether the adaptations could enhance their program and/or address current implementation challenges.

This video explains how to use the Peer to Peer Data Collection System for the RCN. The Peer to Peer Data Collection system is intended to be a data-based decision making tool for RCN leaders and members to promote and expand Peer to Peer programming in their ISDs.