Collaboration is considered an essential characteristic for inclusive education to be effective and reflective of research-based best practices. General and special education teachers and related service personnel must work together and share goals, strategies, and physical space for students with and without disabilities to learn in inclusive settings. Teachers and parents must build trusting and collaborative partnerships in the delivery of inclusive education. Finally, students with and without disabilities must work together and support one another in building effective schools. We offer research-based strategies for and examples of effective collaborative relationships and outcomes from those relationships.

Amid national protests over police brutality, debates over law enforcement in schools have been reignited. Though research has focused on the consequences of police presence in schools, few studies have investigated the roles of school police officers (SPOs) and whether the larger contexts influence them. Using a bioecological framework ( Bronfenbrenner and Morris, 2006 ), we examined how historical, social and developmental contexts shape SPOs' views of their roles and the challenges and opportunities they encounter. Nineteen 90-min focus groups with 45 SPOs from one large school police department were conducted. Analysis revealed that SPOs perceived their roles as multifaceted, encompassing both formal (e.g., law enforcer, educator) and informal (e.g., confidante, counselor) roles. These roles were enacted differently depending on the school level and neighborhood context. Furthermore, the challenges and opportunities SPOs reported were also contextualized emerging from changes in school policies, the rise in technology and social media and increased professionalization of their police department. Implications for theory and research as well as for training and policy are discussed.