A core activity will be engaging with the budget process. In many states, there are non-profit budget analysis and advocacy organizations that can be helpful in familiarizing you with the budget process in your state. The budget experts in these organizations may have previously worked for legislative fiscal committees or in the state budget division, so they follow budget cycles and processes closely and know how things are done – they can be great allies.

At the local level, budgets are generally less complex. Finding an official responsible for the budget at your local school board or municipal/county council can help you access this information. Pay attention to how school districts formulate their budgets and how they share funding with the local government. In some areas the percent of local taxes that pays for schools is determined annually, in others schools may be able to set their own taxes. It is important that you understand how your local governing bodies operate. For a company or organization, the budget process is even less complicated since fewer people are involved, but it is similar: typically, departments will create a draft budget which is given to the top administration and chief financial officer who make adjustments. Once that budget is agreed to, a board will approve it or make additional changes.

• Know the budget timetable: When do the operating agencies prepare their budgets to be submitted to the budget agencies or financial managers? When are preliminary and final decisions made about what will be in the budget and what will be eliminated?
• Know who originates the budget. In some states, the legislature originates the budget (know which committee is responsible); in others, it is the Governor. The same holds true for local government and organizations.
• Know the movement of the budget once it is first drafted:
  • From governor to legislature;
  • From legislative committee to full legislature; or
  • From legislative committees to elsewhere.
• Be close to the discussion about what will be in the budget right from the beginning.This is more likely to produce a recommended appropriation than having to advocate after the budget comes out.
• Understand how the budget is constructed. Different states, localities, and other organizations have varying ways of organizing appropriations into agencies or line items or other categories.
• Crosswalk the child development and prevention policies and programs with the budget priorities of the governor, key legislators, or other influential leaders so you know what is being funded and how much funding is being appropriated to various areas.
• Be alert to opportunities to braid and blend funding sources and collaborate with a number of agencies and departments.

Once legislation (including the budget) is enacted, the administration becomes responsible for figuring out how to implement it.  This part of the process can provide crucial opportunities for advancing comprehensive student supports and behavioral health promotion. At a state and local level, this means that regulations must be drafted that will govern how the statute or budget item will work. How federal grants, including block grants, are implemented may fall into the purview of a state regulatory agency. In the case of a school district, once the school board approves a policy or the budget, the school superintendent is responsible for implementing it. Similarly, in an organization, if the board approves the budget and policies, it is up to the organization to figure out how to implement it, especially if there are changes to their original submission.

• Stay on top of state regulatory processes. This requires both the formal tracking of state registers of official government actions and legal documents and the informal pathways to information via your relationships. Get on the necessary email lists but also build relationships.
• Try to be part of the process when regulations are being first thought out, prior to their official promulgation. It is in these regulation-drafting sessions that key ideas are formulated and decisions are made about implementation. This formulation phase is often the place where the field’s knowledge base can have the most impact. If you and your allies are able to help formulate the ideas behind what the regulations will do and how they will operate, you may be able to create an environment conducive for your initiative to flourish.
• Send letters of support from your wider coalition or partnership once regulations are issued, or conversely, letters of opposition if the regulations do not support your work. They should be genuine letters or personal emails, not just chain emails or postcards.

At a state and local government level, there are other important venues where you may be able to shape thinking and thereby effectively advance school-connected child development and prevention approaches. Frequently, these task forces and commissions involve people from numerous sectors, including businesses, families, and experts.  Some to look for include:

• A governor’s commission that is tasked with formulating reforms or that will make budget recommendations on pertinent topics
• A legislative task force with a similar charge
• The state board of education or state education agency commission or task force on creating a state plan under ESSA
• Activities that are funded by diverse state or local agencies, involving perhaps blending funding streams
• A children’s cabinet or council
• School district committees, school governance councils, and local PTA
• Local board of education policy committee, such as a school district wellness committee or a task force on the whole child

Keep track of both the legislative and the executive branches – and of the interaction between the two. Budgets, for example, are negotiated between these branches. Your Action Team should be aware of who is advancing what among the Executive Branch (Governor, Mayor, Executive Director, agency or department heads, etc.) and the Legislature (committee chairs, committee members, and staff to these committees).

It is desirable, and often possible, to shape the thinking of policy-makers by educating them in advance of formal legislative actions. This is when ideas and concepts that become bills or regulations are developed and where knowledge about school-connected child development and prevention initiatives can get real traction. This is where data can influence people to formulate policy, and where personal relationships with key legislators, staff, or agency leaders can earn you a place in the discussion, or aseat at the “table.” Locally, if you become known as an expert or interested in a topic, someone on your team could be asked to sit on a committee that is researching an issue for either the local government or the school board.

Be aware that trade associations and advocacy groups will frequently convene their own meetings to discuss policy and formulate their responses and recommendations, and it may be possible to participate in these sessions. Sometimes, it is difficult to know where the “tables” are and how they are constituted so use the networks and relationships that have been developed to learn about them.

Public hearings are the other end of the political spectrum. The legislature often holds public hearings as do most school boards. In addition, public hearings are sometimes held on the budget part of the legislative package and on the implementation regulations and guidelines. At all of these, think through which key Action Team members should testify for greatest impact.