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The following suggestions offer different actions you and your organization can take to have your voice heard about the impact of Community Schools. They range from educational to advocacy to lobbying that can be used at the local, state, and/or federal levels. Even if your representative is not on a decision-making committee, they still have a vote, and every vote counts! It is up to your discretion to decide what action(s) are best for you and your organization.

To make the process of reaching out to your members of Congress as easy as possible, we’ve provided two templates, one for a phone call and one for an email message, to use when you contact them. We encourage you to personalize the message so that they know how these federal dollars have made a difference in the lives of your students.

The 2025 state-level legislative season is coming to a close, and there are emerging trends that impact Community Schools, family engagement, and related whole-child and youth development strategies. Over 60% of governors are promoting two or more education priorities, namely, workforce alignment and career and technical education (CTE), education funding alternatives, school choice, and cell phone bans. This brief overviews these trends.

This report outlines six essential strategies for Community Schools and the key mechanisms used to implement these strategies. Next, it profiles Community Schools across the country where these model strategies are being used to achieve transformational results. A close look at these model Community Schools and districts shows that across racial, economic, and geographic diversities in this country, Community Schools work. As the new federal education legislation gives states greater power to implement Community Schools, we recommend learning from the strategies and mechanisms we provide in this report—both from research and from practice—to achieve transformational and sustainable Community Schools across the country.

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.

This report has three objectives:​ 1) To create greater awareness of youth (ages 12-25) experiences throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.​ 2) To highlight clear recommendations and examples of how different communities have been able to address and meet the needs of youth​. 3) To provide a clear process to develop and implement empowering youth engagement strategies.

Community Schools Research Practice Network Webinar Series

Community Schools: An Effective Strategy During the Coronavirus Crisis