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As national attention increasingly focuses on the importance of children’s development in their early years, we have the responsibility—as community members, parents, educators, leaders, and policy makers—to do our part to ensure that young children have the opportunity to thrive. While there are a number of efforts in place to support young children and their families, many focus on one of two domains: either improving early childhood care or education or improving elementary education. Research suggests, however, that there is an essential third domain to attend to in our work to support young children: improving the quality and continuity of a child’s experience and her access to essential supports and services as she transitions from early childhood care or education into the elementary grades.

We are pleased to offer our recommendations for the Biden-Harris Transition Team. Our recommendations are organized in two parts: those we recommend for the first 100 days, and those beyond the first 100 days. We are excited to work with the Biden-Harris Administration to enact, fund, and implement our common goals to ensure that all young people have the supports and opportunities to learn and thrive.

The Community Schools Strategy describes the what, why, and how of system-wide expansion of community schools. This guide is for communities at different points in planning for, implementing, and sustaining a community schools’ strategy.

This case study calculates the return-on-investment for a Community School Coordinator, the person who oversees implementation of the Community Schools strategy, and shares responsibility for the outcomes.

A learning framework for community schools that demonstrates how schools systemically promote better learning through results-focused community partnerships.

The new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) encourages us to educate the whole child—and the community schools’ strategy with its emphasis on deep stakeholder engagement—offers a framework to meet this challenge.

This report demonstrates that collaboration is at the heart of the community school strategy. Community schools have organized themselves to address constant financial challenges by breaking down funding silos and leveraging resources to support students.

The Coalition for Community Schools, an initiative of the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL), is proud to present the annual awards program: Community Schools National Award for Excellence. This award highlights the work of local schools and communities and their efforts to build and expand effective community schools.

The Coalition for Community Schools, an initiative of the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL), is proud to present leadership awards to community school leaders who have made explicit that only by working together and focusing on equity will all children learn and thrive. The Coalition will present national leadership awards to a youth, national partner, superintendent, initiative leader, coordinator, family and community advocates, and educators at the biennial Rise Up for Equity: A National Summit on Community Schools and Family Engagement (formerly Community Schools National Forum). The Coalition will also honor a long-time community school supporter with the Joy Dryfoos Community School Lifetime Achievement Award.