Our team was awarded a grant by a private organization in partnership with a local research network to examine disparities in the special education referrals and services provided to young children in New York City (NYC). Our convergent mixed-methods study is exploring how the NYC preschool ecology--consisting of "process," "people" and "their positionalities," and "practices"--influences teachers' decisions to refer and include minoritized young children who are at risk for or have developmental delays or disabilities. In this colloquium we: (1) describe key issues in the US and the NYC contexts that led to this design; (2) present the study methodology, including its theoretical underpinnings; and (3) discuss implications for systems change in NYC.