2025

This Directors Webinar featured two presentations focused on strengthening implementation and outcomes through professional learning and family engagement.

This is a two-part session. First, the Minnesota SPDG team (Tom Delaney) and Dominic Good Buffalo (PACER Center) will continue our spring series focused on family engagement and SPDG–parent center partnerships. Together, they will share how they are working across state and family partner roles to strengthen collaboration, support implementation, and advance shared goals. This session will build on the March conversation by highlighting another example of how SPDGs and parent centers can work together.

During this first session, Dr. Jennifer Coffey laid the groundwork for the community by framing GrantWISE as a space for fiscal and programmatic excellence in discretionary grants. She highlighted the purpose of the group, upcoming meeting dates, and several core topics we’ll return to over time — including procurement, internal controls, subrecipient monitoring, cash management, budgeting resources, and APR-related budget explanations.

The February Directors Webinar highlighted practical approaches to sustaining SPDG work and building statewide capacity. Tom Delaney (Minnesota SPDG) shared “tool of the month” sustainability resources states are using to plan for the long haul. Abby Foley and Dena Slanda introduced the LEAD IDEA Center and its supports for implementation and continuous improvement. Michael Gregory and Erin Sturgis (Virginia DOE) then showcased Virginia’s comprehensive approach to implementing and sustaining MTSS through coordinated SPDG and other grant-funded initiatives.