Authorizers can better understand community aspirations by maximizing opportunities like community meetings. The goal of community meetings is to make better decisions that align with community needs and aspirations. These decisions may have a more profound, longer-lasting impact on students and families.

Almost all authorizers gather community input in some way through public hearings. Some authorizers collect community input through community meetings, town halls, focus groups, or targeted outreach. Other authorizers will gather this input by creating more robust community engagement requirements for operators or new applicants. Ideally, authorizers and new applicants will share accountability for engaging the community.

This resource will share ideas for how authorizers can hold community meetings—whether public hearings, town halls, or focus groups—in a proactive, inclusive, and authentic way. This resource recognizes authorizers have a range of capacity to do this work; therefore, authorizers may select feasible ideas for implementation in their context. The hope is that authorizers will find this resource helpful in taking the next step toward incorporating a more authentic community voice in their authorizing practices.