We can still choose love: Building loving communities that support student well-being and success 

Current efforts to dismantle the Department of Education—including the Office for Civil Rights, Title I funding, support for students with disabilities, and the vital data systems that underpin equity and accountability in education—raise deep concerns. They jeopardize the opportunity to learn for more than 50 million public school students.  

No matter your stance on the federal government’s role in education, we’ve neglected what we know from experience: Reform falls short when it fails to confront the reality that learning cannot happen if children are unsafe, unwell, and unsupported. 

As advocates for children and families, we must be vigilant in our push for meaningful change at the federal level to support student learning—advancing and restoring necessary supports like school meals that make learning possible. Yet, we must also recognize that student well-being cannot hinge solely on Washington. In these times of institutional instability, bold, community-rooted solutions offer a path forward, building loving communities that prioritize the “whole child”—focusing on the safety, wellness, and future readiness of our students. 

Centering student well-being as an educational priority 

Factors in every child’s life, inside and outside the classroom, dramatically shape that child’s life for decades ahead. The educational, civic, and health progress of young people is directly connected to the progress of our nation. For example, studies have consistently shown that youth who are pulled into the criminal justice system have a significantly higher risk of mortality and a shorter lifespan. That’s why the Schott Foundation for Public Education and our grantee partners have long supported replacing punitive and carceral school discipline policies with those that favor restorative justice and keep children in classrooms, not jail cells. We don’t need to wait for the federal government to ensure our children are living longer and better: Districts, cities, and states can act now.  

Similarly, Schott’s recent Loving Cities Index, which evaluates cities across 24 key indicators to guide investment, reveals a troubling pattern: The “Youth Mortality” indicator—which tracks the number of deaths among individuals up to age 19 per 100,000 over five years—is consistently poor across many cities.  

This stark data point underscores a deeper crisis: the lack of equitable access to mental health support for students. The index found wide disparities, especially in cities like Houston and Memphis, which are in states that have not expanded Medicaid—restricting the funds available for school-based mental health services. While 96% of public schools reported offering some form of mental health support in the 2021–22 school year, only 12% of public schools felt equipped to effectively serve all students in need. Without robust mental health services, we cannot create the loving, supportive communities every child deserves—or ensure the longer, healthier lives they deserve. Ensuring a child reaches adulthood with the health, education, and skills needed for economic mobility demands more than schools—it requires loving communities.  

Building the ecosystems students need to thrive 

So, what does a loving community look like? Philanthropic investment in loving communities means funding powerful strategies that bring together schools, health systems, housing, and community supports.  

Here are five ways funders can support loving communities: 

1. Fund cross-sector collaboration. Collaborate with other funders, advocates, and policy makers across sectors—like education, housing, health, and transportation—to create aligned strategies at the city, county, and district levels. 

2. Redefine metrics of success. Move away from narrow test-based outcomes and track “whole child” and community well-being, including mental health, housing stability, job skills, and life expectancy. 

3. Invest in community power and leadership. Support youth-led, parent-led, and grassroots organizations advancing equity, wellness, and student well-being in their regions. History shows that philanthropic investment in social movement organizing yields outsized, transformative returns.  

4. Advocate for policies that build loving communities. Grow support for policies at the state, city, county, and district levels that invest in community wellness; fund schools over police, housing over punishments, prevention over incarceration. 

5. Invest in durable grantmaking. Invest in long-term, unrestricted funding. Grantee partners need greater capacity and more predictable long-term funding to sustain themselves and their work of advancing economic and social progress. And especially at such an unpredictable moment, grantees need the flexibility to strike where and when the iron is hot.   

Reimagining what students need by centering life and loving communities 

At a time when the future feels uncertain, we need more than reform—we need a reimagining. The life outcomes of our children must become our guiding measure because it requires more than classrooms to help them thrive; it takes education, civic engagement, health, and wellness, the skills for economic mobility—and most of all, it takes loving communities.  

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