June 26, 2015
The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Majority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Harry Reid
Minority Leader
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Lamar Alexander
Chairman, HELP Committee
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The Honorable Patty Murray
Ranking Member, HELP Committee
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
Dear Majority Leader McConnell, Minority Leader Reid, Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:
The Coalition for Community Schools is an alliance of over 200 national, state and local partners all committed
to uniting schools, families and communities for young people’s success. The reach of community schools is
significant: they can be found in nearly 100 places across 38 states, and count among their champions state
legislators, superintendents, school board members, business and faith-based leaders, and others who are
promoting community schools legislation and expansion.
We are pleased to see the reauthorization of the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA) moving forward, and this
letter endorses three amendments promoting community schools to be offered by Senators Brown (D-OH)
and Manchin (D-WV). We endorse these amendments because we know that strong school-community
partnerships embodied in the community school strategy are essential to providing students the opportunities
to be successful. These amendments will strengthen incentives for districts and states to pursue these resultsfocused partnerships to get the outcomes they seek. Community schools have been embraced by
communities and state legislatures across political persuasions, with eleven bills introduced in eight states this
year from Georgia to California to bipartisan bills in Ohio and Texas. This demonstrates the broad support and
versatility of the strategy for any context.
A summary and rationale for each amendment is provided below.
Community Schools Amendment 1: Amends Title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to
establish a full-service community schools grant program.
Rationale: Full-service community schools are growing at a rapid rate across the country (from 33 places in 2007 to
100 now), and the high demand currently outpaces capacity at the local level. This program, appropriated since
2008 and included in the House Democratic Substitute ESEA bill, has successfully catalyzed community school
initiatives in various communities to become effective, self-sustaining, and responsive to local needs through
public-private partnerships. The Full Service Community Schools Act has also enjoyed bipartisan support over the
years in the Senate (S 585, 112th Congress) and the House (HR 5168, 113th Congress). This program is a smart
investment in a strategy that works and is in high demand across the country, and we believe Congress should
nurture promising strategies like community schools in ESEA.
Community Schools Amendment 2: Amends the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to allow
comprehensive services and a comprehensive services coordinator to be provided to a greater number of
students through schoolwide programs under section 1113(c).
Rationale: Most Title I schools in the country are school-wide Title I schools. By allowing this language for
school-wide Title I schools, these comprehensive services will: reach all students in a school who need them to
succeed; will result in a more comprehensive alignment of services provided by the schools and those
available in the community; and will be more cost-effective when applied school-wide. The coordinator role, a
key component of the community school strategy, will ensure that the right services are matched to the right
students, while also ensuring effective collaboration among specialized instructional support personnel and
community partners. This language would explicitly enable any school-wide Title I school that seeks to become
a community school to leverage these Title I funds to hire a coordinator, allowing thousands of schools the
opportunity to implement this effective strategy for student achievement.
Community Schools Amendment 3: Amends part A of Title IV so that each school supported under Title IV will
identify a site resource coordinator, which may include existing staff.
Rationale: In a community school, a site resource coordinator works with school-based staff to identify and
coordinate needs and enriching learning opportunities for students and their families in order to ensure that
young people have access to all possible resources and opportunities to succeed. This role will enhance the
impact and cost-effectiveness of Title IV funds by assessing individual student needs and matching the
students displaying the most need with the programs that will best help them. Schools may choose to identify
existing staff to take on this role, allowing schools the flexibility to determine what works best for them. The
coordinator helps build the capacity and effectiveness of the school to respond to student needs and will
cultivate community partnerships to complement Title IV services offered by specialized instructional support
personnel and other school staff. As a result, this role is important to the infrastructure and long-term
sustainability of any school seeking to significantly improve its safety, health, and well-being measures to
support academic achievement.
In closing, we believe that every young person should have an equal opportunity to reach his or her fullest
potential, and we know a world-class education is essential to achieving this goal. Built into this education
should be a full range of opportunities and supports that young people, from rural to urban communities, can
leverage regardless of their zip code. We also know that schools can’t do this alone. School-community
partnerships are essential to providing students the opportunities to be successful, and these three
amendments would incentivize and strengthen school-community partnerships in federal policy so we can
support young people in a way sophisticated enough to respond to the unique context of each school and
community across the country.
Thank you for considering these amendments, and we look forward to working with you to pass a strong ESEA
reauthorization worthy of the talent, skills and dreams of our nation’s youth.
Sincerely,
Coalition for Community Schools and our partners:
National Organizations
AASA: The School Superintendents Association
AFT
Afterschool Alliance
After-School All-Stars
Alliance for Excellent Education
American School Counselor Association
Annenberg Institute for School Reform
Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Center for Health and Health Care in Schools
Center for Popular Democracy
Elev8
First Focus Campaign for Children
Forum for Youth Investment
Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN)
Healthy Schools Campaign
Mutt-i-greed Curriculum
National Association of Elementary School Principals
National Association of School Psychologists
National Association of State Directors of Special Education
NASSP
National Education Association
National Summer Learning Association
Organizations Concerned About Rural Education
Rural School and Community Trust
School-Based Health Alliance
School Social Work Association of America
SparkAction
The Children's Aid Society
Trust for America’s Health
Yale School of the 21st Century
YMCA of the USA
State and Local Organizations
Albuquerque/Bernalillo (ABC) County Community School Partnership
Family, School, and Neighborhood Engagement Office, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis
Federation for Community Schools
Indianapolis Coalition for Community School Partners
Kent School Services Network (Kent County, MI)
Partnership for Children and Youth
San Francisco Beacon Initiative
School Resource Network, Indianapolis
The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago
United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley
Y.O.U. (IL)