California Professional Standards for Education Leaders · 6B–1
Advocate for equity and adequacy in providing for students’ and families’ educational, linguistic, cultural, social-emotional, legal, physical, and economic needs, so every student can meet education expectations and goals.
Effective advocacy joins a clear moral claim with credible evidence, affected voices, a feasible request, and sustained follow-through.
What this looks like in practice
Leaders distinguish equality, equity, and adequacy. The same allocation may be equal but insufficient; a targeted resource may be equitable but still too small to meet the need. Evidence should include access, quality, utilization, experience, and outcomes—not spending alone.
Advocacy should be done with communities, not performed on their behalf without consent. Protect privacy, avoid defining people by need, and make the requested policy or resource specific enough for a decision-maker to act.
Developing the practice
Define the gap
Describe the affected students, existing assets, unmet need, current provision, consequences, and evidence of adequacy.
Build the case together
Combine student and family voice, operational evidence, legal or policy context, cost, and a realistic implementation path.
Sustain the follow-through
Track commitments, implementation, access, and outcomes and return to decision-makers with what was learned.
Useful connections
Job-description library
SDLA role profiles can help identify whether a recurring student need requires clearer ownership or specialized district capacity.
Questions for reflection and mentoring
- Is the current provision equal, equitable, and adequate—or only one of those?
- Have affected students and families shaped the advocacy request and its language?
- What evidence will show that an approved resource became usable support?