Belonging is Connection
Students thrive when they are known, valued, and connected to the learning community.
ConnectA movement for inclusive schools
Belonging isthe Standard.
Every student deserves to remain connected to belonging, learning, and opportunity, even when they struggle, make mistakes, or need support.
Because belonging isn’t something students earn.
It’s something adults create.
The shared responsibility
Schools change when adults build systems that keep students connected, not pushed away.
I Deserve To Be In turns the moral imperative of inclusion into a practical leadership model for classrooms, campuses, and districts.
The I Deserve To Be In Framework
A school model for belonging, learning, support, and restoration.
Five principles help educators examine the daily choices that determine whether students remain connected to their learning community.
Learning is Access
Every decision should protect a student’s access to meaningful, rigorous learning.
Understanding Before Correction
Behavior carries a story. Effective leaders seek to understand before they respond.
Restoration Repairs Harm
Accountability is strongest when it repairs relationships, restores trust, and teaches a better way forward.
Adults Create the Conditions
Belonging does not happen by chance. It is built through the choices, systems, and actions of adults.
The Belonging Brief
Ideas that challenge how educators think and how leaders lead.
Short, research-informed reflections designed to open meaningful conversations about belonging, equity, restoration, and student connection.
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ForthcomingThe forthcoming book
A call to rethink exclusion and create a better way forward.
I Deserve To Be In: Creating Inclusive Pathways for Marginalized Students examines how bias, exclusionary discipline, cultural misunderstanding, and unequal access to support can disconnect students from school. Grounded in doctoral research and more than two decades of educational leadership, the book challenges educators to reconsider the systems and everyday decisions that determine whether students feel valued, supported, and able to succeed.
Through student-centered stories, research-based insights, reflection questions, and practical strategies, the book explores restorative practices, culturally responsive teaching, trauma-informed support, alternatives to suspension, educator development, and systemic advocacy. It shows how schools can maintain accountability and high expectations while preserving student dignity, relationships, and access to learning.
Written for teachers, administrators, district leaders, policymakers, and others committed to educational equity, I Deserve To Be In is both a call to action and a practical guide for creating schools where every student can belong, remain connected, and move forward.
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21+
Years in education
About the founder
Dr. C. Field Taylor, Ed.D.
Educational Leader · Scholar-Practitioner · Culture Builder
Dr. C. Field Taylor is an educational leader, scholar-practitioner, and culture builder with more than 21 years of experience as a teacher, department chair, restorative-practices specialist, and school administrator. His work focuses on strengthening school culture, supporting educators, and creating systems that balance accountability with belonging, high expectations, and meaningful student support.
His doctoral research examined how teachers implement alternatives to suspension and how those practices influence exclusionary outcomes for African American high school students. As founder of the I Deserve To Be In platform and developer of its framework, Dr. Taylor turns research and leadership experience into practical approaches that help schools keep students known, challenged, supported, and connected to learning and opportunity.
Join the movement
Let’s create schools where every student knows: I deserve to be in.
Connect for speaking, professional learning, framework updates, and the continuing Belonging Brief conversation.
info@ideserve2bin.com