Oversight Training for Lawmakers and Staff
We offer tailored oversight workshops and technical assistance for state elected officials and their staff seeking to strengthen their ability to conduct high-quality oversight investigations. Check our workshop options below and get in touch for a workshop that fits your audience and needs!
How can we best support you?
Oversight: Introduction or Advanced
If you are new to oversight or want a refresher, we can help you build the skills to ask informed questions, gather reliable information, and hold government accountable. If you have worked in oversight before, we can strengthen your oversight practice with strategies for conducting effective hearings and turning reports and audits into meaningful follow-up.
- Introduction to Oversight: 1-2 hours
- Advanced Oversight: 2-3 hours
- Format: virtual or in-person
Interactive Scenario
Put your oversight skills into practice through a realistic, fictional case. Working together, participants examine evidence, develop an investigation plan, and design hearings to uncover the facts—building skills they can bring to their next oversight challenge.
- Approximate Length: 2-4 hours
- Format: in-person including group work and presentations
Technical Assistance
Work with us to examine how legislative oversight in your state performs, with the goal of discovering where to improve. Implement a long-term plan for improving oversight with State Oversight Academy resources at every step. Further, contact us with any innovative ideas for oversight in your legislature to explore how Technical Assistance from the State Oversight Academy can help.
Length and format are customized to the request.
Online & On-Demand
Build your oversight skills on your schedule with nine lessons on conducting in-depth investigations through the six avenues of legislative oversight. Instructional videos, expert interviews, examples from state legislatures, and practical assignments help you apply bipartisan, fact-based oversight tools in your own legislature.
- Approximate Length: 5-7 hours
- Format: 9 online modules with assignments to complete
Download our menu of workshop options for more details and get in touch to discuss the best fit for your state.
Recent Oversight Workshops and Presentations
Jim Townsend and Ben Eikey attended the CSG Robert J. Thompson Eastern Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. Across the street from Independence Hall, where the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were adopted, they presented on state legislative oversight. They guided 31 legislators, legislative staff, and executive branch officials through an interactive oversight scenario involving the closure of a hospital birthing center. By bringing research and best practices to state practitioners through sessions like this, the State Oversight Academy helps build the tools and skills for fact-based oversight in state legislatures.
Kyle Bule provided training at the Council of State Governments’ Medicaid Conference, engaging 28 state legislators and two state Medicaid directors from across the country. SOA led an introductory discussion on the role of state policymakers in shaping Medicaid policy and facilitated an interactive legislative oversight workshop focused on preparing for potential changes to Medicaid under H.R. 1.
During the workshop, participants worked through a case study involving maternal health challenges at a rural hospital, developing plans for an investigation and legislative hearing to gather information and strengthen oversight. The sessions highlighted practical tools lawmakers can use to conduct effective, proactive oversight of complex public policy issues.
Jim Townsend and Ben Eikey traveled to Madison, Wisconsin to present in CSG Midwest’s Bowhay Institute for Legislative Leadership Development (BILLD) program. First or second term state lawmakers from across the midwestern United States are selected for BILLD. The State Oversight Academy’s session was an introduction to legislative oversight, and the planning exercise was a highlight for many participants. This is the second year the State Oversight Academy traveled to the Badger State to be part of BILLD.
The State Oversight Academy traveled to Salt Lake City for the Council of State Governments West Annual Meeting. Ben Eikey presented in two sessions. One was on Rural Healthcare Transformation funding oversight, and the other was on data centers and artificial intelligence oversight. Both sessions focused on how state legislators conduct oversight on these timely, important topics. Legislators from the western United States acclaimed the sessions but were less impressed with Ben’s singing at karaoke!
Be
n Eikey traveled to the Minnesota House of Representatives for workshops. These workshops introduced state legislative oversight and explored how to prioritize such efforts in the Minnesota Legislature. Each workshop concluded with an exercise in which participants built plans comprising factual questions and the oversight resources needed to pursue answers. Thanks again to the great people in the Minnesota Legislature for helping to coordinate these successful workshops. The State Oversight Academy looks forward to future visits and will be prepared for snow next time, even in the spring!
On January 14th, the State Oversight Academy, in partnership with Future Caucus, conducted two in-person oversight workshops in Topeka, Kansas, for legislative staff and legislators. Participants learned about their oversight authorities and how to structure a legislative inquiry. Potential oversight topics covered a wide range, but a morning session highlight was bipartisan staff focusing on how to find facts on cell phone use in public schools to help inform the current debate. Feedback on the workshop content was positive and helped pave the way for further oversight efforts with the Kansas State Legislature.