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<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> National Initiative
for Transforming Student
and Learning Supports<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Equity of opportunity is fundamental to enabling civil rights;
transforming student and learning supports is fundamental to
enabling equity of opportunity, promoting whole child development,
and enhancing school climate
About the Pioneering Work, go to
Commentaries Related to the National Initiative
over the years
2026
4/9/26 -- Expanding the Mental Health Workforce -- and Fixing the Student Support System at the Same Time
4/2/26 -- Moving Toward a Best Practice Approach to Addressing Barriers to Learning and Teaching
3/19/26 -- Addressing Student Trauma Involves More than Reactive Crisis Responses
3/12/26 -- More About Support for Students -- especially those with family or friends deployed in the war
3/5/26 --The War in Iran: Update on Supporting Students (March 5, 2026)
3/2/26 -- The War in Iran: Supporting Students in Our Schools
2/26/26 --About the interagency agreement Relating to Family Engagement and School Support
2/12/26 --Supporting Students Distressed by ICE Actions: What Schools Can Do
2/5/26 -- Facing and Addressing Realities Before More Students Fall Through the Cracks
1/29/26 -- Layoffs of Student Support Staff in U.S. Public Schools
1/22/26 -- Concerns about MTSS
1/8/26 --Rethinking and Restructuring Student/Learning Supports
2025
12/11/25 -- Wrap up 2025,
12/4/25 -- What We are Learning from the Award Nominees
11/20/25 -- Major Reasons for Transforming K-12 Student/Learning Supports
11/13/25 -- Comparing the Concepts of ACEs and Barriers to Learning and Teaching
11/6/25 -- What's the difference between "School Mental Health" and "Mental Health in Schools"
10/30/25 -- The State of K-12 Education in 2025-26: Challenges and Urgent Priorities
10/23/25 -- Why Are So Few Educators Focused on Transforming Student Supports?
10/16/25 -- Teacher Survey Highlights Lack of Basic Student/learning Supports
10/9/25 -- Not Another Team!
10/1/25 -- Is your School Board Prioritizing a Focus on Helping Schools Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching?
9/25/25 -- Advocating for Mental Health in Schools: Moving Beyond a Narrow Agenda
9/18/25 -- About responding to the drop of math, reading scores
9/11/25 -- Better Achievement Scores Require Major Improvements in Student Supports
9/4/25 -- Making this the Year that Schools Begin Transforming Student/Learning Supports
8/28/25 -- Moving Beyond MTSS to Transform Student/Learning Supports
8/21/25 --NEW for 2025-2026 school year
An Agenda for Improving Student/Learning Supports:
A Month by Month Guide for Systemic Change with Existing Resources
8/7/25 -- Carnegie Foundation Transformation of High Schools: Are you Concerned about What's Missing?
7/31/25 -- About the School-Based Mental Health Services Grant (SBMH) Program
7/24/25 -- About the recent RAND report on schools screening for mental health
7/17/25 -- Moving Forward: An Urgent Priority
7/10/25 -- Well it's happened -- schools are losing Medicaid funding -- And this only adds to ongoing challenges and others on the horizon
7/3/25 -- Planning for the next school year
6/26/25 -- How is the current support system at schools addressing the student absentee problem?
6/19/25 -- How are Current Events Affecting Efforts to Improve Student/Learning Supports?
6/12/25 -- Summertime and Moving Forward with Efforts to Improve Student/Learning Supports
6/5/25 -- Artificial Intelligence and Improving Student Supports
5/29/25 -- Don't Stop with MTSS!
5/22/25 -- How much concern is there about the impact mental health issues are having at schools?
5/15/25 -- How can the AI revolution enhance student/learning supports?
5/8/25 -- Has use of the term "Mental Health" in the context of schools become a bad thing?
5/1/25 -- How Harmful are the Changes at the Federal Level to
Addressing Barriers to Learning and Teaching?
4/24/25 -- The sky is not falling, but it sure feels like it is.
4/17/25 -- Concerned About Mental Health in Schools?
4/10/25 -- Do you have a prescription for fostering the well-being of children?
3/20/25 -- So much is changing: Where do schools need to go from here?
3/13/25 -- Fairness: Everyone uses the term . . . but ...
3/6/25 -- Public Education over the Brink
2/20/25 -- How are/will schools be affected by the current actions of the federal government?
2/16/25 -- Public Education on the Brink
2/13/25 -- Given current events, it is essential to reemphasize Guidelines for Mental Health in Schools
2/6/25 -- NAEP Scores Highlight the Reality that Reducing the Achievement Gap Requires Reducing the Opportunity Gap
1/30/25 -- Engagement is Essential, and So is Reenagegment
1/23/25 -- Behavior, Learning, and Emotional Problems: What's a School to Do?
1/15/25 -- Enhancing stakeholders' positive involvement at a school:
Establish a Concerned Stakeholder Discussion Club
2024
12/19/24 -- Another school shooting -- Let's Consider Some New Directions for Preventing and Responding to Problems at School: MTSS is not enough!
12/5/24 -- Governor's Playbook on MH: What's Missing?
11/14/24 --Public Education on the Brink of Major Changes
11/7/24 --Why Are Teachers Expected To Be Successful When They Aren't Receiving Essential Supports?
10/31/24 -- An Open Letter to Timothy Knowles President, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching
10/24/24 -- About Online Mental Health Assistance for Students: Discussing the Pros and Cons from a School Perspective
10/17/24 -- What issues arise when referring students to outside resources, especially virtual help?
10/10/24 -- Let's stop tinkering and really change how schools address mental health
10/3/24 -- It's not about establishing a MTSS framework;
it's about transforming how schools address barriers to learning and teaching
9/26/24 -- About School Shootings
9/12/24 -- So Many Emails about Student Mental Health
9/5/24 -- While We Grieve, Let's Dedicate this School Year to More than Hardening School Security and Threat Assessment
8/29/24 -- How to Embed Mental Health in Schools
8/22/24 -- 2024-2025 -- A SEASON FOR CENTER RENEWAL
8/15/24 -- Open Letter to AASA
8/8/24 -- Are you concerned with how well schools are addressing students' learning, behavior, and emotional problems?
8/1/24 --Problems have surged since schools reopened: but schools continue to address learning, behavior, and emotional problems with limited effectiveness -- Why?
7/25/24 --Responding to Attacks on Public Education Require Innovation and Transformation
7/18/24 -- Who's Really Interested in TRANSFORMING Student and Learning Supports?
7/11/24 -- Things Schools Can Do This Summer to Improve Student Attendance Next Year
6/27/24 -- First Concern for Students' Mental Health is a Safe and Supportive School
6/6/24 -- Are MTSS and Community Schools Being Adopted as Buzzwords Rather Than the Basis for Making Substantive System Improvements?
5/21/24 -- Mental Health in Schools: Falling off the Fiscal Cliff
5/16/24 -- More Referrals for MH Services than Necessary
5/9/24 -- About Limited Approaches
4/28/24 -- Anticipating Student Protests
4/24/24 -- How to Improve MH in Schools with Available Funds
4/16/24 -- Concerns about mental health in schools are growing.
4/11/24 -- ot Ready to Transform Student/Learning Supports? (But you do want to make some needed improvements!)
3/14/24 --Instructional and Support Staffs too Often are Overwhelmed
3/7/24 --Are you talking about mental health services, SEL, MTSS?
2/28/24 -- About Making Major School Improvements
2/21/24 -- The real difficulty in changing the course of any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas but in escaping old ones.
2/7/24 -- Embedding Mental Health into the broad range of supports teachers expect and want available to them: Moving Forward
1/18/24 -- Student/Learning Supports Falling Off the Fiscal Cliff
1/12/24 -- Problems with Current Advocacy and Approaches Focused Mainly on Advancing Mental Health in Schools
2023
12/21/23 --A Reaction to the Narrowing of Student Well-being to Mental Health Concerns 12/14/23 --Resources for Improving How Schools Address Barriers to Learning & Teaching 12/7/23 --A New Year's Resolution for All Who Want to Improve How Schools Address Learning, Behavior, and Emotional Problems 2024 can be the year when schools transform student/learning supports. 11/30/23 --About the Daily Supports Teachers Need: A Follow-up on Preventing "Burnout" as the School
Year Resumes11/9/23 --Everyone's Talking About Students' Mental Health: Schools Need to Avoid Five Potential Pitfalls 10/26/23 -- Israel and Hamas conflict has schools wrestling with what to do 10/12/23 -- Broadening Thinking About Mental Health in Schools 10/5/23 -- Teachers Already Know Which Students are Doing Poorly and Aren't Being Helped 9/28/23 -- Mental Health in Schools: Why is Federal Support Focused so Narrowly? 9/14/23 -- Child Poverty is Increasing:That's Another Reason Schools Need to Transform Student/Learning Supports 9/7/23 -- Addressing Attendance Problems 8/31/23 -- Are Teachers Already Feeling the Pain? 8/17/23 -- About the Current State of Student Support and Future Directions 8/10/23 -- About Teacher Survival 8/3/23 --Thinking Outside the Box to Enhance Mental Health in Schools 7/27/23 -- About Leadership Considerations for Responding to Student Misconduct 7/20/23 -- About Opportunities to Prevent Child Maltreatment 7/13/23 -- Districts are laying off student support staff -- time to rethink how schools provide student/learning supports 7/7/23 -- A Focus on Improving the Role of Schools in Providing Student/Learning Supports for Homeless Students 6/29/23 -- Moving Beyond the Mental Health and Learning Loss Crises 6/22/23 -- The Mental Health Crisis and Schools: Don't Limit the Focus to MTSS 6/8/23 -- About shifting the framework for improving schools 6/1/23 -- Want to Make the Next School Year Better? Then this summer is the time to plan for transforming how student/learning supports are provided at schools. 5/25/23 -- What's Missing in the New Report on The State of School Diversity in the United States? 5/18/23 -- Mental Health in Schools: Moving Beyond the Emergency 5/11/23 -- Screening Students for Problems: Testing Often is Not Needed 5/4/23 -- How schools can play a much more proactive role in reducing the opportunity gap 4/20/23 --About Addressing the Growing Discipline Problems 4/20/23 -- Yet another initiative meant to enhance Mental Health in Schools: It needs some more thought 4/13/23 -- Students sad, distressed? < 3/30/23 -- About How Schools can Best Play their role in Addressing Mental Health Concerns 3/23/23 -- School System Challenges that SEL Must Address