As schools began to close in March of 2020, there was a quick transition to online and virtual options to keep students engaged in learning and to protect students from COVID-19. With schools suspending in-person classes, many children stopped engaging in academic instructional activities due to lack of technological resources, school programming,…

Over the last decade, California leaders have made tremendous progress on supporting kids in some crucial areas. They have vastly increased the percentage of children enrolled in health insurance and made paid family leave available for most workers. They have also invested in free school meals, committed to universal transitional kindergarten,…

School-based mental health services are a promising context for evidence-based interventions to promote early socio-emotional development, yet implementation presents significant challenges. This paper describes the rationale, content and format of a school-based intervention, Starting Strong in Kindergarten (Starting Strong). Starting Strong is a…

Young people across California are leading the way forward socially, culturally, and politically. They are organizing for racial justice, learning and working and caring for family members during a pandemic, and voting in record numbers. The past two years with the COVID-19 pandemic has been hardest on kids, particularly children of color, in…

"The 2021 Pro-Kid Policy Agenda for California" is the comprehensive state-level roadmap to ensure that all children have the necessary supports to reach their full potential. California has an obligation to end systemic injustices that create barriers to kids of color, as well as kids living in poverty and undocumented kids, from…

Homelessness for young people has immense challenges. The author shares a story of a homeless teen that provokes thought regarding youth who find it impossible to live in their home environments.

This report summarizes results from the Austin Community Collaboration to Enhance Student Success (ACCESS) program in AISD during 2007-2008.

An outcome evaluation was conducted for seven Project SHIELD (Supporting Healthy Individuals and Environments for Life Development) research-based and best practices interventions using secondary data from the 26th largest school district in the nation. The SHIELD program is designed to provide students and schools with enhanced infrastructure and…

This brief document provides a look at research and evaluations that have demonstrated that school-based health centers represent cost-effective investments of public resources.