By James Stoffer and Zach Vander Veen
Children do not exist in isolation. Community schools support student wellbeing and teacher health, creating conditions that enable academic success and broaden opportunities for students, their families, and their neighborhoods.
Editor’s note: This is part four in a five-part series. To read earlier installments, see one, two, or three in the series.
In the first article of this series we made the case for community schools. Community schooling is not new — it has evolved over more than three decades and now includes roughly 5,000 schools across the United States, representing nearly four percent of all public and private schools. The movement has steadily gained traction because it addresses educational inequities by linking schooling with health, social services, and family supports.
In the second installment we examined how states and districts — from California to Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New York, New Mexico, and Vermont — are investing in community-school models as a strategy to respond to pandemic-related challenges and to improve long-term outcomes. These efforts aim to coordinate resources to address barriers to learning, expand behavioral health supports, and ensure students and families have the services they need.
The third article focused on the technology that empowers modern community schools. To function effectively, community schools must use technology to coordinate services and manage operations like a high-performing logistics organization. Just as major tech companies optimize supply chains, community schools need technological systems that connect academic, health, and social supports to students and families efficiently and transparently.
At the federal level and in several states, policy and funding are beginning to reflect this reality — including proposed boosts to Full-Service Community School grants and directed investments at the state level. These resources help create integrated systems where local initiatives around mental health, nutrition, preschool, expanded learning, and college and career readiness align under a cohesive equity-focused strategy.
The four pillars of success
Community schools commonly organize their work around four foundational pillars that guide practice and resource allocation. These pillars help ensure students receive holistic supports that promote learning and wellbeing:
- Integrated student supports: Coordinated services that address academic, physical, social-emotional, and mental health needs. This includes trauma-informed health and mental health supports and the deliberate practice of knowing each student well so supports can be tailored effectively.
- Family and community engagement: Genuine partnerships with families and community members that draw on their expertise, cultures, and leadership. Authentic engagement can include home visits, collaborative planning, culturally responsive partnerships, learning opportunities for parents, and shared decision-making structures.
- Collaborative leadership and professional practice: School leadership that fosters a culture of continuous professional learning, shared responsibility, and collective trust. This involves professional development focused on school climate, social-emotional learning, trauma-informed care, restorative practices, and strategies that center student learning and wellbeing.
- Extended learning time and opportunities: Expanded academic supports, enrichment activities, and real-world learning experiences such as internships and project-based learning. Extended learning can include before- and after-school programs, summer learning, tutoring, and in-school supports that broaden access and deepen engagement.
A shared commitment
Community schools are designed to disrupt the cycle of poverty and long-standing inequities by leveraging community resources to ensure students are healthy, prepared for postsecondary success, and ready to thrive. Each community school is shaped by local needs and priorities, so no two look the same. What they share is a commitment to partnership, rethinking how resources are delivered, and centering students and families in decisions that affect their lives.
Data is crucial
Effective community schools rely on clear data systems and protocols that enable timely, ethical use of individual and aggregate information. These systems allow staff and partners to see what students need and to make transparent, evidence-based decisions. Key data practices include:
• A shared data system used by school staff and community partners, with training provided for all users.
• Coordinators and partners having secure access to relevant student and school-level data while policies protect confidentiality.
• Regular review of data by site leadership and multidisciplinary teams to inform priorities, differentiate responses, and design individualized plans.
• Legal and procedural safeguards, including data sharing agreements, consent processes, and clear descriptions in family handbooks about how data are used.
When hundreds of community partners engage with a school, integrated data systems save time and increase impact. With appropriate permissions, partners can view meaningful elements of a student profile — academic progress, behavior patterns, learning inventories, portfolios, and plans — enabling them to design programs that respond to the whole child. Linking program participation to student outcomes lets schools allocate resources where they are most effective and can measurably improve student success.
In the final installment of this series we will explore lessons learned from community-school implementation and practical steps any school can take to benefit from this approach.
About the authors
James Stoffer is CEO of Abre.io, where he leads growth, operations, and talent strategies. He has spent his career in education technology and operations, previously holding leadership roles at DreamBox Learning, Hobsons, and MasteryConnect. He holds an MBA from Xavier University and a BS in Marketing from Clemson University.
Zach Vander Veen has served as a history teacher, technology coach, administrator, and director of technology. He is co-founder and VP of Development and Customer Success at Abre.io and is passionate about learning, teaching, and family-centered approaches to education.
This article was originally published by The Learning Counsel, a research institute and news media hub focused on the shift to digital curriculum in education.