California: Local Control Funding Formula

In 2013, California adopted the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), which has shifted billions of dollars to districts serving high-need students. The LCFF includes a base formula that provides equal dollars for each pupil, with additional weights provided for pupils with greater needs—those living in poverty, English learners, and youth living in foster care—as well as additional funding for districts serving high concentrations of these students. In place of the state’s previous test-based accountability system, the LCFF established multiple measures of student and school success, eight state priorities in all, including school climate, parental involvement, pupil engagement, access to basic services, and access to a broad course of study. These priorities serve to focus districts on a whole child agenda. The LCFF also provides all districts with broad flexibility to develop, in partnership with parents, students, and staff, spending plans aligned with these state priorities, as well as with local priorities and needs.

Following the implementation of the LCFF, California had one of the largest increases of any state on the National Assessment of Educational Progress, significant increases in graduation rates, reduced suspension rates, and increased school safety. Research using rigorous causal methods to test the effects of the new funding formula found that “increases in per-pupil spending caused by LCFF led to significant increases in high school graduation rates and student achievement,” with particularly significant gains in mathematics for students from low-income families.

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Massachusetts: Education Funding Reforms

Prompted by the McDuffy v. Robertson court ruling that found Massachusetts’ school finance system unconstitutional, the state adopted a new school finance formula in 1993 as part of the Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA). The MERA stimulated substantially greater investments in higher-need schools through a weighted student funding formula that aimed to equalize state funding and local efforts simultaneously and added funding increments based on the proportion of students from low-income families and English learners in a district. This progressive approach helped boost educational investments and achievement as the state undertook a comprehensive reform effort featuring new standards and assessments, demanding more intellectually ambitious teaching and learning.

In addition to much greater and more equitable funding for schools, the initiatives pursued included statewide standards for students, educators, schools, and districts; new curriculum frameworks to guide instruction and state assessments; expanded learning time in core content areas; investments in technology; stronger licensing requirements for teachers; increased funding for early childhood programs; and more access to high-quality learning opportunities for teachers and school leaders. By 2000, Massachusetts had underwritten these reforms with more than $2 billion in new state dollars to its public schools, greatly expanding the state share of funding and enhancing equity.

Multiple studies of these reform investments have found positive impacts, including that increased educational funding in historically low-spending districts led to improved student achievement in all subject areas, especially for previously low-scoring students. Unfortunately, the state has not provided adequate funding for its weighted student funding formula in recent years, and it has recalculated poverty rates in ways that undercount children from low-income families, especially those who are undocumented. These policies have allowed inequalities to grow. Nevertheless, since 2002, Massachusetts has led the states in student achievement on the National Assessment of Educational Progress after strong improvements over the course of the previous decade.

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Oklahoma: Pre-K Program

In 1998, Oklahoma began fully funding preschool for all 4-year-olds across the state, without eligibility requirements. The state now has one of the highest levels of enrollment in preschool or Head Start in the country, with approximately 80% of all 4-year-olds served. As the program rapidly expanded to meet demand, Oklahoma also began providing public funding to private providers through locally determined contracts between districts and providers, who are required to meet the same standards and are subject to the same monitoring as public schools.

Oklahoma funds preschool through its state funding formula, which the legislature can adjust depending on the state’s tax revenue from year to year. What is notable about Oklahoma’s formula is that districts can use state funding for full-day preschool at no cost to families.

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Washington: Early Childhood Education Program

Washington state is home to a high-quality state-funded preschool program that serves more than 10,000 of the state’s most vulnerable children. Washington’s Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP), modeled on Head Start, stands out for the extensive services, including preschool classes that focus on social-emotional skill-building, medical and dental screenings to help students focus, and mentoring for families, that have been integral to the program since its inception in 1985. The state-funded program is relatively small and highly targeted, serving 3- and 4-year-old students whose families earn no more than 110% of the federal poverty level. Washington has maintained state funding for this program even in tough economic times because of a united, bipartisan coalition that has kept lawmakers’ attention on early learning, and added funding from foundations and the federal government has helped the state invest in the early learning workforce.

Additionally, the state’s quality rating and improvement system, Early Achievers, has helped increase quality for child care across the mixed delivery system (e.g., public schools, child care centers, community-based organizations) since 2013. Job-embedded, relationship-based coaching is a key component of Early Achievers. Because participation in Early Achievers is required for all sites that receive any state funding or subsidies (as mandated by the Early Start Act), coaching is provided across the full continuum of the mixed delivery system of early learning programs throughout the state. This includes state preschool; Head Start; community-based child care centers serving preschoolers, infants, and toddlers; and family child care providers.

Washington’s program has shown impressive gains but has yet to reach its full scale. A 2014 evaluation by the Washington Institute for Public Policy showed that the state’s preschool students made impressive test score gains in both reading and math, gains that persisted through 5th grade. Compared with children in the control group that did not participate, participants enrolled in preschool showed gains equivalent to a 7% boost in reading and a 6% increase in math scores in 5th grade. For all of its strengths, however, Washington’s preschool program still does not serve many of the eligible children, and while legislators mandated that there be enough space to enroll all eligible children by 2020, the state is still far from meeting this goal.

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West Virginia: Preschool Funding

West Virginia initially authorized school districts to run publicly funded preschool programs in 1983, but the state’s early childhood efforts received a significant boost in 2002 with the creation of a voluntary universal preschool program for 3- and 4-year-olds with special needs. In an effort to support school readiness for all of the state’s young children, West Virginia has invested in gradually expanding its West Virginia Universal Pre-K (WV Pre-K) system and improving quality standards. Although many other state and federal programs serving young children exist in West Virginia, WV Pre-K is the largest of the state’s early childhood efforts. In 2012, for example, the program received 85% of West Virginia’s total early childhood investment.

West Virginia finances the pre-k program primarily through a combination of state and federal funds. The state school aid funding formula determines the state allocation for WV Pre-K each year, and funds are disbursed to districts on a per-pupil basis for children ages 4 and over enrolled in a public school program. As enrollment in WV Pre-K has increased over time so has the state’s total investment in WV Pre-K. In fiscal year 2012, West Virginia contributed over $86.2 million in state school aid to WV Pre-K, comprising nearly two thirds of total funding for the program. A 2018 study of the effects of state pre-k on early learning found that West Virginia students who participated in WV Pre-K demonstrated increased math, literacy, and language skills in kindergarten.

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Georgia: Whole Child Toolkit

In 2015, Georgia set out to articulate its whole child vision, with input from state leaders and community stakeholders, as a part of its Every Student Succeeds (ESSA) plan. In 2018, its plan was approved with a goal to utilize the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model as its system for continuous improvement. This framework is intended to help the state identify needs, select interventions, plan, implement, and examine its progress toward improving the state’s conditions for learning.

Stemming from the stakeholder engagement process under ESSA, the Georgia Department of Education has created a Whole Child Toolkit—an interactive website to help districts and schools understand federal programs, access guidance on taking a whole child approach to education, and implement a community school strategy. The toolkit serves as a one-stop location to support statewide efforts to ensure students are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. The toolkit links to a variety of topics requiring coordination across agencies, including mental health, nutrition, school climate, student safety, fine arts, social studies and civics, after-school programs, and early childhood. The state is working to ensure each topic covered provides:

• An explanation of the supports provided, with supporting research and data

• Information for schools and districts on federal funding streams that support them, as well as possible uses of those funds

• A linked list of state programs, initiatives, and partners

• Tools and resources to support implementation

For example, Georgia’s “Healthy” section of the toolkit includes a research paper on the comprehensive nutrition programs and services in schools; a resource on the select interventions and allowable federal funding for mental health; links to the state Departments of Public Health, Community Health, and Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities; CDC guidance; and tools to assess student safety and well-being.

Georgia is continuing to build out the toolkit to include professional development opportunities, best practices from schools and districts, and answers to frequently asked questions.

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Virginia: Services for Youth and Families

The Virginia Comprehensive Services Act (VCSA) intends to provide high-quality, child-centered, family-focused, cost-effective, community-based services by pooling together eight specific funding streams to support services for children and youth in special education and foster care and those with emotional or behavioral issues. The VCSA is part of the Virginia Children’s Services Act (CSA), a law enacted in 1993 to establish a collaborative system of services and funding. In the 2020 fiscal year, CSA served over 15,000 children and families in the 133 cities and counties in the state. With a combined state and local budget of over $435 million, CSA is a major contributor to supporting a coordinated system of care in Virginia. The VCSA also coordinates human services to support youth, with care services delivered by and through local social services agencies, local community service boards, private providers, and the CSA program.

Funds are pooled from the Departments of Social Services, Juvenile Justice, Education, and the Behavioral Health and Developmental Services. Pooled funds are returned to localities with a required state and local match and are managed by local interagency teams. These teams include a Community Policy and Management Team (CPMT), which consists of local agency heads who oversee the administrative and financial aspects of the local funds. CPMT members also appoint members to a Family Assessment and Planning Team (FAPT), which consists of agency staff, parents, and private providers. The FAPT then develops individual family services plans to ensure eligible students receive supports that comply with federal requirements.

A previous study indicated that CSA’s expanded eligibility helped provide more services to children in less-restrictive environments compared with the previous system. The state also conducts annual evaluations that look at seven indicators, such as the percentage of youth receiving intensive care and community-based services and the percentage entering and exiting foster care placements. Recent reports show an increase of localities scoring in the top quartile based on a composite of these indicators, from 42 localities in 2018 to 50 in 2019.

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District of Columbia: Schoolwide Head Start Model

The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has a long history as a leader in the provision of early childhood education. When DCPS first rolled out its universal preschool program in 2008, administrators had to confront a tough question: What should be done with Head Start? At the time, DCPS was the largest provider of Head Start in the city, serving nearly 1,800 children with a contract of $11 million. Yet despite these children being taught in the same school district as their peers who were enrolled in DC’s universal preschool, they were kept in different classes. Operating universal preschool and Head Start under one roof was also administratively inefficient. Administrators were required to go through an arduous cost allocation process to ensure that Head Start dollars went only to enrolled children. That required staff to spend a significant amount of time on duties unrelated to their work’s content. Nutrition aides, for example, spent their time running between classrooms and the cafeteria to ensure that children in Head Start ate in their classrooms and not in the cafeteria.

From 2009 to 2020, DCPS expanded access to Head Start services by implementing its Head Start schoolwide model, an innovative model that blends Head Start and local funding to ensure that more pre-k students and their families have access to comprehensive services. In addition, children who were eligible for Head Start and DC’s universal preschool were able to learn in the same classrooms. The DCPS system was able to accomplish this by working with its regional Head Start office to allow the district to offer a blended Head Start and district preschool program to all children in Title I schools. This flexibility was granted, with the requirement that DCPS continue to serve at least as many Head Start–eligible children as it did in prior years. The schoolwide model allowed DC to more than double the number of children receiving Head Start services, extending Head Start’s reach and creating a more unified system of public preschool since its inception.

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Massachusetts: Social and Emotional Learning Funding

Massachusetts named “supporting social and emotional learning, health, and safety” as one of its core strategies in its Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) state plan to promote social and emotional learning (SEL) by connecting statewide pre-k to 12 SEL programs. To support this strategy, the state is providing training, technical assistance, guidance, and resources to schools and districts to help them utilize Title IV, Part A funds to create positive school climates and safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments for all students. To help make this happen, the state is providing guidance on implementing pre-k SEL standards and k–12 SEL curricula. In addition, the state has updated its professional standards for teachers and administrators so they are aligned with assisting students in developing social-emotional skills, habits, and mindsets. Massachusetts also updated its Multi-Tiered System of Support Blueprint, which provides a framework with a multi-tiered approach to SEL so that all students develop core social-emotional competencies. By providing these resources, Massachusetts has helped to connect SEL to other core strategies, such as promoting educator development; strengthening standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessments; and making improvements for its lowest-performing schools and districts.

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California: Medi-Cal Funding

Medi-Cal, the Medicaid health care program in California, helps students and families with limited incomes pay for a variety of health- and mental health–related services. This federally funded state service has helped support schools in California by reimbursing them for services such as dental care, eye exams, and counseling. In addition, counties in the state can use Medi-Cal dollars to fund full-time therapists and other support staff who provide individual, group, or family therapy. Schools can partner with county health centers in California to access Medi-Cal funding through contracts under the Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment benefit, which provides preventive health and mental health services for enrolled children and youth. The state also has a billing option for districts, county offices of education, and charter schools, which reimburses them the federal share of the maximum allowable rate for approved health-related services provided by qualified health service practitioners.

The state’s push to expand access and participation in Medicaid has also benefited from the California Children’s Trust. This coalition of county agencies, local health providers, philanthropic organizations, and individual advocates has fostered cross-sector collaborations to improve the social, emotional, and developmental health of California’s youth. By providing an overview of Medi-Cal funding and services, the coalition has shown that there is a dramatic underinvestment in children’s health and that federal funds that could be used to support children’s health are being left on the table. To make up for the underinvestment, California Children’s Trust has helped increase state and county spending to access matching federal funds by expanding the participation of managed care organizations and finding eligible share dollars within child-serving systems.

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Kentucky: Family Resource and Youth Services Centers

Over the past 3 decades, Kentucky has built state infrastructure to provide integrated supports to students and families. In 1990, the state passed the Education Reform Act, which paved the way for sustained funding for Family Resource and Youth Service Centers (FRYSCs). These centers are supported through Kentucky’s funding formula so that schools with at least 20% of students receiving free or reduced-price school meals are eligible to apply. In 2017, FRYSCs received $51.5 million in funding. Currently 642,156 middle and high school students are served by FRYSCs—meaning they receive a variety of integrated student supports, such as referrals to health services, referrals to social services, career exploration, substance abuse education and counseling, family mental health counseling, and summer and part-time job development for high school students.

In 2008, Kentucky built on the FRYSC model and passed legislation to create Family Resource Centers (FRCs) to serve students and caregivers in the elementary grades by offering health services and referrals, family literacy services, after-school child day care, and preschool care. Together, almost all eligible schools (98%) have received FRYSC or FRC services, with 116 FRYSCs and 442 FRCs in the state serving 1,217 schools.

FRYSCs utilize AmeriCorps members with funding through the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which provides health benefits and training on how to tutor reading for FRYSC CORPS members over a 2-year period. FRYSC CORPS members address barriers to learning in host sites that pay $6,500 for 1,700 hours of literacy service. For example, more than 30 AmeriCorps members earn up to $14,279 in living allowance and $6,195 in education awards to serve as reading tutors for between 15 and 25 students and support FRYSC implementation broadly. In addition, 30 high school student members earn $1,311 in education funds for their postsecondary pursuits by helping to address food insecurity in the communities of host sites.

A 2020 impact report showed FRYSCs contributed to improvements in kindergarten readiness, student behavior, reading, math, attendance, career readiness, ACT scores, English language support, and parent and caregiver involvement.

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New York: Community School Investments

Between the 2016–17 and 2019–20 school years, New York increased annual funding for community schools from $100 million to $250 million. This amount, which applies to 233 school districts that have been identified as high need, was maintained in the state's 2021–22 budget. Districts can use the funding to provide students and their families with needed supports to ensure readiness to learn a rigorous curriculum, support connections between schools and community organizations that offer enrichment or social and health services, and encourage the use of school sites as community resources. In addition to supporting new community school initiatives, set-aside dollars can be used to sustain existing community school programs that had been funded under the prior Community Schools Grant Program (a 2-year initiative that began in 2013 and provided 3-year grants of $500,000 to each eligible school district).

Additionally, the New York State Education Department established community school regional Technical Assistance Centers (TACs) in 2018–19 to help school districts run community schools by providing resources and professional development on effective and promising practices. The TACs also build regionwide communities of practice to highlight best practices and to provide opportunities for practitioners within the region to support and learn from one another.

The funding allocated by the state provided for critical infrastructure for the New York City Community Schools Initiative (NYC-CS). The NYC-CS began with 45 community schools in 2014 and has grown to 267 community schools across all five New York City boroughs. New York City’s recovery budget is using federal recovery funds to expand the initiative to 406 schools. A 2020 study of the NYC-CS found positive impacts on student attendance, on-time grade progression, credit accumulation, graduation rates, and math achievement, as well as a reduction in disciplinary incidents for elementary and middle school students.

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California: Multi-Tiered System of Support

California’s Multi-Tiered System of Support (CA MTSS) is “a comprehensive framework that aligns academic, behavioral, and social and emotional learning in a fully integrated system of support for all students.” The framework provides a three-tiered continuum of these supports (universal, supplemental, and intensified) to ensure students with the greatest needs, often those who are historically underserved and marginalized, receive the most targeted interventions. For example, supplemental and intensified supports may include nurses, counselors, social workers, or school psychologists. By focusing on student learning and well-being, CA MTSS takes a whole child approach that focuses on coordinating:

• Collaborative administrative leadership through strong and engaged site leadership and educator support systems

• An integrated educational framework through fully integrated organizational structures, such as community school models

• Family and community engagement through trusting family and community partnerships

• Inclusive policy structures from local educational agencies (LEAs) that link multiple initiatives, such as after-school programs and wraparound service providers

California provides implementation support through its Guide to Understanding California MTSS, which shows the beliefs, knowledge, and skills needed for proper implementation. The state also provides descriptions on MTSS Connecting the Dots, a framework showing how the state’s priorities for supporting youth and the CA MTSS align, including how counselors can meet students’ mental health needs. Currently, California is focused on scaling up CA MTSS through state legislation that funds resources and technical assistance to assist LEAs. In 2021, the state appropriated $50 million to scale up statewide implementation of an MTSS framework. Of the total amount, $30 million will be issued to districts as grants to support the implementation of high-quality academic, behavioral, and social-emotional learning practices that are integrated into MTSS at the schoolwide level.

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Maryland: Community School Strategy

In 2019, Maryland began funding the majority of its community schools through the Concentration of Poverty School Grant Program, which provides grants to public schools in which at least 80% of the students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals. Each school receiving one of these grants must employ a community school coordinator and provide full-time coverage by at least one health care practitioner. The Maryland Association of Boards of Education estimates the state will provide $248,333 to 219 qualifying schools for a total of $54.6 million.

To support community school implementation, the Maryland State Department of Education created a Community Schools Toolkit with a section titled “Braiding Funding to Secure the Work of Community Schools.” This toolkit includes state funding opportunities, such as the Public School Opportunities Enhancement Program, which provides funding each year to extended-day, enrichment, or summer programs. It also highlights how schools can supplement access to expanded and enriched learning opportunities through Learning in Extended Academic Programs (LEAP) grants by utilizing school-based health centers, partnering with state-aided educational institutions, and finding local funding opportunities.

Maryland’s toolkit also describes how multiple federal education funds can support community school implementation. For example, the toolkit outlines how:

• ESSA Title I, Part A funds can support supplemental instruction, increased parent engagement, counseling, health care, dental care, and extended learning opportunities

• ESSA Title II, Part A funds can support mentoring and induction programs and professional learning opportunities

• ESSA Title IV, Part A funds can support mental health service partnerships, programs that promote community engagement, and trauma-informed school-based practices

• 21st Century Community Learning Centers can support out-of-school-time programming

• School nutrition programs through the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) can fund meals and snacks during and outside of school

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California: Bridging the Digital Divide Fund

Many state and local reopening plans include a requirement that each district undertake a survey of device needs across families to determine how best to narrow the digital divide. This work can be centralized to ensure quick delivery of laptops and other devices when there are already disruptions in the supply chain. When the pandemic hit in 2020, California rapidly surveyed all of its districts and, in April 2020, established a task force overseeing the California Bridging the Digital Divide Fund, a joint effort of the governor’s office, the California State Board of Education, and the California Department of Education (CDE). The funds raised go directly to equip school districts with resources they need to enable distance learning. With contributions from corporations and foundations, the state has purchased hundreds of thousands of Wi-Fi hot spots and Chromebooks for students to support district efforts. Many county offices and large districts, including Los Angeles, did the same to purchase devices and hot spots in bulk.

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Tennessee: Broadband Expansion

In 2017, Governor Bill Haslam signed into law the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act (TBAA) to provide internet and Wi-Fi access to underserved communities in the state. So far, $45 million ($10 million in 2018, $15 million in 2019, and $20 million in 2020) has been allocated to the program, and $2 million has been provided to internet service providers to cover half of the costs of extending fiber lines to underserved or rural communities.

The TBAA permits private, nonprofit electric cooperatives in Tennessee to provide broadband service, which has been important to increase internet access to rural areas. The bill’s deregulatory provisions also ensure that consumers do not have their choices limited due to the participation of the cooperatives. The TBAA also provides grants to libraries in rural areas to promote digital literacy, education instruction, and library hot spots for homework. Further, the TBAA is intended to encourage cooperation with Tennessee’s Rural Task Force and other existing programs aimed at driving broadband adoption.

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Ohio: Broadband Expansion

In August 2020, Ohio announced that it would set aside $50 million in Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) funding to provide hot spots and internet-enabled devices to students. The Ohio Department of Education worked with BroadbandOhio, an office created just before the onset of COVID-19 to increase access to high-speed internet, to administer the grant program. The office is part of the Development Services Agency and serves as a resource for local governments and private industry to help achieve Ohio’s 2019 plan to expand internet access across the state. BroadbandOhio will advance the state’s goals to support broadband projects in the education system, as well as in the state’s health care and economic development systems.

Ohio’s statewide plan has been complemented by local partnerships. For example, to close the digital divide, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District and the nonprofit DigitalC have worked together since the pandemic began to hand out over 17,000 devices and provide 4,700 temporary hot spots. In partnership with, and with additional funding from, the city of Cleveland and MetroHealth, the district is paying DigitalC a discounted rate of $16 per household to install antennas and other equipment throughout the city. The school district’s CEO, Eric Gordon, has expressed his goal for the partnership to focus on serving the lowest-income neighborhoods so they have the same digital learning opportunities as those in affluent and well-connected suburban areas. Overall, the partnership projects that its $36 million fundraising campaign will cover all 38,000 unconnected students by by the end of 2022.

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