WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) today announced that President Obama’s Fiscal Year 2017 budget proposal includes $10 million to expand community schools. Community schools bring together students, families, service providers, and neighborhoods to provide important services to help students better access the learning opportunities and support services they need to succeed. Open year-round, these schools can help provide physical and mental health services, access to housing services, nutritional assistance, and after-school programming.
“Community schools help ensure that students’ academic, emotional, and social needs are met,” Brown said. “I look forward to working with my colleagues to secure the funding needed to expand school resources.”
The Every Student Succeeds Act – signed into law by President Obama in December 2015 – includes a variation of Brown’s Full-Service Community Schools amendment to expand the community school model to more schools across the country. As a part of this legislation, there will be a set-aside that allows the Secretary of Education to award at least 10 grants per year for full-service community schools. Ohio has 89 community schools in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, and Toledo. There are also plans to develop community schools in Columbus and Youngstown.
The Every Student Succeeds Act also includes Brown’s bipartisan Community Schools Site Resource Coordinator amendment that would ensure that each community school program receiving funds can use these funds to have a site resource coordinator for their school or local education agency. Site resource coordinators would work with the community and non-profits to identify and source additional resources to benefit students. A one-pager on the amendment can be found here.
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