LACOE Community Schools initiative acknowledged with $3 million grant

An effective approach to mitigating the academic and social impacts of the pandemic on students and families just got a boost with a $3 million grant to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, one of eight agencies statewide to be awarded funding in the California Community Schools Partnership Program.

The grant award supports LACOE's Community Schools initiative launched in July 2019 with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health with funding from the County Board of Supervisors. The effort represents an unprecedented partnership among school districts, county departments and community agencies.

Fifteen local high schools serve as pilots for the Community Schools model, which focuses on addressing the needs of the whole child by integrating academics, health and social services, youth development and family engagement. A Community School is a hub linking families to a range of resources so that students are healthy and ready for success in college, career and civic life.

'This pandemic has laid bare longstanding educational inequities and underscored the urgency of protecting our students' physical and emotional wellbeing,' said LACOE Superintendent Debra Duardo. 'The need for a Community Schools approach has never been more critical. I am grateful to the California Department of Education for recognizing our successful work in Los Angeles County with this grant award.'

LACOE's Community Schools benefit more than 24,000 students in high-need communities served by Littlerock HS (Antelope Valley Union HSD), Azusa HS, Baldwin Park HS, Bassett HS (La Puente), Bellflower HS, Centennial HS (Compton USD), Duarte HS, Lynwood HS, Morningside HS (Inglewood USD), Montebello HS, Glenn HS (Norwalk-La Mirada USD), Paramount HS, Pasadena HS, Ganesha HS (Pomona USD) and Santa Monica HS.

LACOE serves as the oversight agency to align activities, promote best practices, establish measurement metrics, leverage resources and secure funding. Each site has two full-time Community Schools staff and an advisory council of diverse stakeholders.

During the pandemic, Community Schools staff have been vital in reaching out to students struggling with distance learning and deploying teams that contact families to provide support, address challenges and connect them with services and resources.

New funding from the California Community Schools Partnership Program will support different areas of need among 14 of the participating schools (Glenn HS was included in another grant application). Such needs include the addition of psychiatric social workers, academic enrichment activities, support for learning/credit recovery and tutoring, parent workshops and professional development for teachers and other school staff.

'My priority is to promote the Community Schools model as the norm throughout our region, fueled by the incredible power of partnerships,' Duardo said. 'As we recover from the pandemic, we can seize this moment to transform an education system that has persistently left behind far too many of our low-income students and young people of color.'

Photos: A food drive at Pasadena HS and a student desk-building project at Baldwin Park HS are among the many activities LACOE Community Schools have undertaken to meet the needs of students and families during the pandemic made possible through the power of partnerships.

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