4. Resources to Support All Students

The Commission’s final report under Policy Area 4: More Resources to Ensure that All Students are Successful recommended the following:

• Broad and sustained new academic, social service, and health supports for students and schools that need them the most;

• Increasing funding for special education significantly to improve outcomes;

• Additional funding for English Learners (EL) students, including EL family coordinators;

• Creating a new program for schools with high concentrations of students living in poverty, in addition to student-based funding through the compensatory education formula. The new Concentration of Poverty School Grants would fund community schools that coordinate needed social services, before‑ and after‑school and summer academic programs, and expanded student access to school-based health services. In addition to a base amount for each school, the amount of additional funding would be based on the concentration of poverty in a school above 55%; and

• Establishing a Transitional Supplemental Instruction for Struggling Learners program to provide additional funding for one-on-one and small-group instruction for students who are not, or are not on track to, reading at grade level by grade 3 (secondarily students who are not proficient in math). These funds are provided over a six-year period, ultimately phasing out as other components of the new education system are implemented, including more time outside the classroom for teachers to provide personalized instruction to students who need additional supports.