Integrated Student Support: State Policy Toolkit

A robust body of research illuminates how policymakers and practitioners can effectively support healthy child development and learning by implementing “whole child” approaches in schools that address students’ needs and cultivate students’ strengths. When well implemented, these approaches can use existing resources—across education, social services, health and mental health, and youth development—more efficiently and effectively, creating short- and long-term benefits for taxpayers. This toolkit is designed to help policymakers navigate the challenges that schools are facing in the wake of the pandemic, such as an uptick in school violence, steep declines in math and reading scores, and disparities of opportunity and social mobility that quash many students' talents and stifle their hopes.