Community Partners Are Multipliers

Schools multiply impact when partners sit at the table as co-educators. The most powerful partnerships come from the communities our students call home. That includes Black-owned businesses, tribally owned enterprises, and neighborhood shops that speak the language, understand the culture, and hire locally. We have already hired students inside our own business and connected students to companies that matched their interests. It is time to move from individual wins to a systematic approach that scales. The engine is a well-built partner database that turns goodwill into organized opportunity.

Why center Black-owned and community-owned businesses

Students thrive when they see professionals who look like them, pronounce their names correctly, and understand their neighborhoods without translation. Black-owned and community-owned businesses often mentor beyond the job task. They model navigation of bias, networking, and entrepreneurship. Equity is not only who receives services. Equity is also who gets to lead and be paid for expertise. When we contract with community businesses, we strengthen the local economy and create pathways that last beyond one semester.

What partnerships look like in practice

Start with a memorandum of understanding, known as an MOU, that names roles, background checks, safety training, data sharing rules, and outcomes. Attach a simple data sharing agreement, known as a DSA, that follows the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, known as FERPA. Match partners to needs.

• Tutoring and homework help to support literacy and numeracy.
• Youth programs for mentoring, attendance coaching, and leadership development.
• Employers for job shadows, paid internships with training, and entry-level jobs with coaching.
• Health providers to coordinate therapy schedules so students do not lose special education service minutes written into the Individualized Education Program, known as the IEP.

Build the database that makes partnerships work

Use a shared tool such as Google Sheets or Airtable. Give the Special Education director, work-based learning coordinator, and transition team edit access. Family liaisons, counselors, and case managers receive view access.

Core fields to include

• Partner name, owner identity (Black-owned, tribally owned, immigrant-owned, women-owned, veteran-owned), neighborhood, industry sector.
• Contact name, email, phone, website, preferred communication method.
• Partnership type, mentorship, job opportunity, job internship with training, guest speaker.
• Student capacity this term and by role.
• Eligibility notes, grade levels, language needs, transportation notes, accessibility features.
• Safety requirements, background check status, point of contact for incidents.
• Hours available, schedule windows, seasonality.
• Paid or unpaid, wage rate or stipend, funding source.
• MOU status, DSA status, expiration dates, insurance on file.
• Outcome measures, hours logged, supervisor feedback, certifications earned, offers extended.
• Cultural alignment tags, Black-owned, community-owned, languages spoken, youth-friendly workspace.
• Notes on student success stories, barriers encountered, next steps.

Student matching fields

• Interests from the Present Levels of Academic Achievement and Functional Performance, known as PLAAFP.
• Accommodations and supports from the IEP, for example, visual schedule, extended time, job coach.
• Transportation plan, school bus, public transit, family car, partner van.
• Safety considerations and medically relevant information with consent.
• Work-based learning goals and hours required for credit.

A simple process that runs every week

1. Intake and vetting. New partner fills out the Google Form. Team reviews for fit, confirms MOU and DSA, and completes background checks.
2. Match and plan. Transition team matches students to placements using interests, supports, and transit. Families approve in writing.
3. Orient and start. Provide a one-page orientation for the supervisor, role of the job coach, emergency contacts, and how to log hours.
4. Log and coach. Students use a work-based learning log to record hours, tasks, and supervisor feedback. Staff collect fidelity notes on scheduled versus delivered hours to protect IEP services.
5. Review and adjust. Ten-minute weekly huddle to spot issues, adjust supports, and celebrate wins.
6. Close and verify. At the end of the term, verify hours, gather references, update the résumé, and secure next-step opportunities.

Quality, safety, and compliance without mystery

• Use a short incident protocol. Partners call the school immediately for injuries or safety concerns and submit a written summary within 24 hours.
• Protect privacy with FERPA-aligned sharing. Only authorized staff see identifiable student data.
• Keep IEP services whole. If a placement conflicts with specialized instruction or related services, adjust the schedule or add compensatory time.
• Train supervisors. Provide a 30-minute webinar on disability awareness, prompting levels, behavior-specific praise, and how to request help.

Evaluation that is public and useful

Publish a quarterly dashboard with aggregate numbers. Students placed, paid hours, certifications earned, offers made, attendance gains, and reading or math growth where appropriate. Break results out by race, language, disability category, and neighborhood to ensure Black students and other historically marginalized groups benefit fully. Share what worked and what needs a fix. Scale the winners. Improve or sunset the rest.

Funding and sustainability

Blend funding sources where legal, Perkins for Career and Technical Education, special education funds for job coaching when written into the IEP, Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act partners for youth employment, and donations from local employers. Pay students whenever possible. Paid work is the strongest predictor of employment after high school.

Turning your current practice into a system

You have already hired students within your own business and introduced students to outside employers. Capture those relationships in the database. Add tags for Black-owned and community-owned businesses. Invite those owners to advise the program, guest speak, and mentor new partners. System beats heroics. A living database makes the work repeatable.