On March 15, 2007, Santa Barbara residents were shocked when a baby-faced 15-year-old high school student was stabbed to death in the heart of the city's fashionable State Street shopping district. His assailant, just 14, was a member of a rival street gang and a student at the local junior high. "It was a wakeup call for the entire community, schools included," recalls Santa Barbara schools Superintendent Brian Sarvis. Although gang violence rarely erupted on campus, it had become increasingly common in this affluent community. But the town was in denial. When police visited the homes of the accused assailants, most parents had no idea their children were involved in gangs and were oblivious to obvious clues that their sons were in trouble. Reaching these disaffected teenagers and helping their parents combat the addictive lure of the streets had become a matter of life and death, and it was clear that local schools needed to be part of the equation. In Santa Barbara and elsewhere, schools are intensifying their focus on families as a way to help students thrive. Parent-effectiveness training is becoming an increasingly common extracurricular school program. Soaring unemployment and cuts in social safety-net programs make it even more imperative that schools find ways to help students and their families cope with stress.