This resource is intended to support state education agency (SEA) staff members as they build partnerships with tribal leaders to improve educational outcomes for Native students through the use of data, research, and evidence. Tribal governments are sovereign nations that promote self-determination for approximately one-half million American Indian students in the United States, who experience disproportionately high rates of special education identification, suspension, and chronic absenteeism (Collier, 2012; Hanson, 2021; National Center for Education Statistics, 2019a; U.S. Department of Education, 2019). This disproportionality is due to structural inequities that persist in educational systems, such as a hostile school climate and policies that do not accommodate absences for ceremonial and cultural observances (U.S. Department of Education, 2015).

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