While many small community water systems (CWS) operate effectively, others face significant technical, managerial, and financial challenges. Partnerships in the form of collaborative agreements among small CWS, or between small CWS and another organization, represent one potential mechanism for expanding limited capacities. Recognizing this potential, the US Environmental Protection Agency and state governments have adopted a range of policies designed to encourage partnership formation. However, partnerships may not be useful to all CWS and there may be drawbacks to partnership formation. To better support small CWS, policymakers need to understand whether and how these systems benefit from partnerships and what drives or discourages their participation in collaborative agreements. This report presents findings from a national survey of small CWS (response rate 13%). Findings reveal substantial heterogeneity among small CWS in their operational challenges, their expectations of the potential benefits from partnerships, and their responses to state policies designed to encourage partnership formation. Survey responses indicate that small CWS view partnerships as potentially useful for addressing financial and human resource challenges, yet at the same time, small CWS expressed concern about loss of control, dependence on outside entities, liability, and equity implications of partnerships. Likely due to these concerns, respondents favor informal cooperation and contracting over consolidation. Survey findings also indicate that state policies designed to encourage partnerships have had, at most, a moderate reach. Factors contributing to this limited effect include widespread unawareness of existing policies, the narrow scope of many policies, a lack of attention within policies to the drawbacks to partnership formation, and insufficient levels of support.