2015 "No School Alone" Report.
In 2014 legislation was enacted to direct the Education Research and Data Center to contract with Washington State University to conduct a geographic analysis to identify areas where family factors such as employment and health status correlated with academic and behavioral indicators of student success.  The report, entitled "No School Alone:  How Community Risks and Assets Contribute to School and Youth Success," was published in 2015.
 
The report uses as its unit of analysis "locales," which are school districts or groups of school districts.  The report addresses:

• the prevalence of family and community health, safety, and stability factors relevant to student success;
• the identification of resilience factors correlated with improved population outcomes even in populations with family, health, safety, and stability challenges;
• the identification of key community factors that can influence academic success and youth development, such as the severity of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) reported by adults, the poverty level in the school communities, and differences in school size and ethnic diversity;
• the value of using existing data sources as a framework to identify and track community factors; and
• the implications of the findings for policy targeted at improving kindergarten through grade 12 (K-12) or post-secondary outcomes.

 The eight recommendations of the report include:

• investing in expanding public awareness of the scope and consequences of ACEs and trauma, including supporting educators and educating parents on the impact of trauma;
• creating robust local partnerships between schools and communities to integrate understanding of ACEs and trauma into strategies for prevention and intervention; and
• sustaining efforts to address the impact of poverty on communities and schools by integrating social-emotional learning (SEL) practices into schools' academic missions, and increasing access to trauma-informed early intervention and treatment resources for vulnerable students and families.

Social-Emotional Learning.
Social-emotional learning helps students build awareness and skills in managing emotions, setting goals, establishing relationships, and making responsible decisions that support success in school and life.
 
In 2019 legislation was enacted that directed the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to adopt SEL benchmarks and standards and created the Social Emotional Learning Committee (SEL Committee).  The SEL Committee was directed to develop a trauma-informed, culturally sustaining, and developmentally appropriate statewide SEL framework, and to identify best practices for schools implementing the SEL framework.  Students in kindergarten through grade three must receive instruction in SEL.

Professional Learning.
School districts are required to use one state-funded professional learning day every even year to train school district staff in one or more of the following topics:  Social-emotional learning, trauma-informed practices, recognizing and responding to emotional or behavioral distress, consideration of ACEs, mental health literacy, antibullying strategies, or culturally sustaining practices.

Institutional education providers are required to use one state-funded professional learning day every year to provide training on specified topics, for example:  the cognitive, psychosocial, and emotional development of adolescents; mental and behavioral health literacy; and racial literacy and cultural competency.  An institutional education provider is a school district or other entity providing education services to youth in an institutional education facility, for example, a county juvenile detention center or a state long-term juvenile institution. 

Accountability Framework.
The State Board of Education is responsible for implementing a standards-based accountability framework that is used to identify schools and school districts for recognition, continuous improvement, and additional state support.
 
COVID-19 Pandemic.
In 2020 the Governor prohibited most schools from conducting in-person educational, recreational, and other K-12 school programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In March 2021 the Governor issued an emergency proclamation noting that Washington children and youth are experiencing a mental and behavioral health crisis as a result of the pandemic, exacerbated by isolation and difficulty engaging with remote learning.

Reports.
The Education Research and Data Center must contract with Washington State University to produce two reports for the Legislature.  The first report must be completed by December 1, 2023, and must analyze educational programs, services, and related academic and nonacademic supports provided by public schools and community-based organizations in partnership with schools.  The report must include six items, at a minimum, for example:

• a summary of new educational services and related academic and nonacademic supports offered by public schools and community-based organizations and accessed by students and their families since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic;
• a description of the implementation of social-emotional learning standards and benchmarks;
• a comparison of the extent to which students with disabilities were connected to certain services before and during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• recommend educational programs, services, and related academic and nonacademic supports that have been shown through evidence to increase student educational outcomes.

The second report must be completed by December 1, 2024, and must update the data analysis conducted for the 2015 report, including the geographic analysis and, where possible, highlight the same locales highlighted in the earlier report.  It must also disaggregate student data by several dimensions, including race, low-income status, and special education status.
 
Cross-Sector Trainings.
Subject to available funding, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) must distribute funding to school districts and institutional education providers to partner with certain community-based organizations to offer cross-sector trainings on specified topics.  The community-based organizations must be those that provide youth with activities that complement and support classroom-based instruction and can improve student learning, behavior, and achievement.
 
Funding must be prioritized first to institutional education providers and then to school districts in a community identified as having a high number of adverse childhood experiences, prioritized to the school districts who are the lowest performers under the state's accountability framework.
 
The cross-sector trainings must be on one of the following topics:  Social-emotional learning; mental and behavioral health management; teaching students to be peer mediators; and antiharassment, intimidation, and bullying.  The Center for the Improvement of Student Learning within the OSPI must identify training programs on these topics that are either designed for cross-sector implementation or be able to be modified for cross-sector implementation.
 
The cross-sector trainings must be offered to staff at the school district who have regular, sustained interactions with students and to relevant student support professionals at the community-based organizations.  The trainings must, to the extent possible, be offered in face-to-face settings.