Transforming early childhood discipline policy through collaborative research and evaluation.

Nationwide, 17,000 3- and 4-year old children are expelled or suspended from preschool each year (Zeng et al., 2019). In response, advocates and researchers have called on policymakers to implement policies and legislation to prevent our youngest learners from entering the “preschool-to-prison pipeline” before they have even begun formal schooling. This article, coauthored by a team of academic researchers, advocates, and policymakers, includes findings from a multimethod, longitudinal study of the implementation of one state’s approach to curtailing early childhood expulsion, Illinois Public Act 100–0105. Original survey and interview data were collected for this study from early childhood program administrators throughout the state. Our findings have already been used to enhance practice, policy, and dissemination efforts, while also documenting barriers and a need for more data. By sharing how our multidisciplinary coalition collaborated to collect, interpret, disseminate, and translate findings from this study, we hope to inform the development of collaborative partnerships in the study of similar policies in other jurisdictions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).