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This 3-pager lifts up 8 key talking points to help support Bipartisan Community Schools advocacy.

The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes the critical role community schools play in providing comprehensive services to students that promote their academic achievement and overall well-being. In the most recent bipartisan funding bill, the President secured $150 million for the Full-Service Community Schools program. This means the program is twice as large as last year and five times as large as when President Biden came into office. This toolkit is designed primarily to help community school leaders, coordinators, advocates, and other stakeholders understand the current scope of federal funding that can be used to support community schools. This toolkit identifies federal resources that can support one or more of the four pillars of an evidence-based community school and bolster community schools’ success: 1) integrated student supports; 2) active family and community engagement; 3) expanded and enriched learning time and opportunities; and 4) collaborative leadership practices.

With strategic and financial support from the Ballmer Group, four national partners – the Center for Universal Education at Brookings Institution, the Coalition for Community Schools (CCS), the Learning Policy Institute (LPI), and the National Center for Community Schools at Children’s Aid (NCCS) – are collaborating with practitioners, researchers, and leaders across the country to elevate areas of alignment and consensus across various community school approaches to further align, build, and scale community schools.

Letter to Chairwoman DeLauro, Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Cole, and Ranking Member Blunt to encourage them to significantly increase funding for the Full-Service Community Schools Program (Title IV Part F of the Every Student Succeeds Act) to match President Biden’s 2022 budget request of $443 million. Community schools is a critical strategy to help schools and communities recover and stabilize from the ongoing effects of the pandemic, and an effective strategy of a whole-child approach to public education that is necessary now more than ever.

Return on Investment of a Community School Coordinator: A Case Study

This blueprint provides examples of how Community Schools effectively responded to the pandemic, highlighting “how” Community Schools operate through collaborative leadership, and offers recommendations for state and local educators, community leaders, and others on how to leverage Community Schools as a core strategy for communities to efficiently and effectively recover while transforming education and accelerating economic mobility.

The Committee on Appropriations submits the following report in explanation of the accompanying bill making appropriations for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (except the Food and Drug Administration, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Indian Health Service), and Education, and the Committee for Purchase from People Who Are Blind or Severely Disabled, Corporation for National and Community Service, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, Institute of Museum and Library Services, Medicaid and CHIP Payment and Access Commission, Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, National Council on Disability, National Labor Relations Board, National Mediation Board, Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, Railroad Retirement Board, and Social Security Administration for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2022, and for other purposes.

This document includes “Frequently Asked Questions” intended to support state and local efforts in effectively using ARP ESSER funds to advance evidence-based full-service community schools and related approaches.

The American Rescue Plan Act offers school and community leaders an unprecedented opportunity to reinvigorate our public schools as engines of equity and democracy.