<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
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

  2025

  • 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 Resumes
  • 11/9/23 --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
  • 3/9/23 -- What did Scholastic, Inc. have to do with Introducing Educators to a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System of Learning Supports?
  • 3/2/23 -- Community Schools and MTSS Provide a Platform for Transforming Student/Learning Supports
  • 2/24/23 -- Mental Health in Schools: We Never Argue Against the Need for Additional Federal Support, BUT ...
  • 2/2/23 -- A host of free and readily accessible resources from the Center for MH in Schools & Student/Learning Supports at UCLA
  • 1/19/23 -- Is current advocacy for more and more student support professionals interfering with efforts to transform student/learning supports?
  • 1/12/23 -- About the Student Mental Health Crisis
  • 1/5/23 -- Myths Schools Live By and are Suffering from Related to Addressing Learning, Behavior, and Emotional Problems

     2022

  • 12/15/22 -- Resources for Improving How Schools Address Barriers to Learning & Teaching
  • 12/8/22 --A New Year's Resolution for All Who Want to Improve How Schools Address Learning, Behavior, and Emotional Problems
  • 12/1/22 -- About the Daily Supports Teachers Need
  • 11/17/22 -- How federal agencies contribute to fragmenting the role schools play in addressing the problems of children and youth
  • 11/10/22 --Concerned about the backlash to student support services?
  • 11/3/22 -- Everyone's Talking About Students' Mental Health: Schools Need to Avoid Five Potential Pitfalls
  • 10/27/22 --Learning Loss: What Needs to be Done?
  • 10/13/22 -- About Safe and SUPPORTIVE Schools
  • 10/7/22 -- Backlash to Prevailing Support Services: Change is Coming -- Time for Leadership to Guide it in a Better Direction
  • 10/6/22 -- Right Now Many Students are Doing Poorly and Aren't Being Helped
  • 9/29/22 -- What you can do right now to encourage improving student/learning supports <
  • 9/8/22 -- What are Community Schools Doing to Help Transform Student/Learning Supports?
  • 9/1/22 -- NEW: A Brief Guide for Moving Student/Learning Supports in New Directions
  • 8/25/22 -- Helping New Teachers Succeed
  • 8/18/22 -- Increased Attention to Mental Health in Schools is an Opportunity to do More than Address the Immediate Needs of a Few Students
  • 8/11/22 -- Enhancing Equity of Opportunity at Schools: Not likely without schools developing a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System of Student/Learning Supports
  • 8/4/22 -- More Federal Funding for Safety and Mental Health in Schools
  • 7/28/22 -- About Anxiety, Resilience, and Schools
  • 7/21/22 -- What do recent reports tell us about student well-being at this stage in the pandemic?
  • 7/14/22 --Just Adopting Buzzwords and Tinkering with Student/Learning Supports is a Recipe for Maintaining an Unsatisfactory Status Quo (or Worse)
  • 7/7/22 --Growing numbers of students labeled with disabilities: Why is anyone surprised?
  • 6/30/22 -- Helping School Boards Move Forward in Addressing Barriers to Learning
  • 6/23/22 -- Is it a Community School OR is it a School with a Community School Initiative?
  • 6/9/22 -- Are You Experiencing Pooh's Dilemma?
  • 6/2/22 -- This School Year Ends with Mixed Emotions: Moving Ahead with a Focus on Enhancing Equity of Opportunity
  • 5/26/22 -- A Caution About How the Feds Think About Student/Learning Supports and Mental Health
  • 5/19/22 -- Enhancing How Schools Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching is a Critical Step in Improving Support for Public Education
  • 5/12/22 -- Mental Health in Schools: Taking Stock, Moving Ahead
  • 5/5/22 --   Time for Schools to Remind the Community: "Here's the Positive Contribution We are Making"
  • 4/28/22 -- Mental Health in Schools: An Opportunity Gained! An Opportunity Lost?
  • 4/21/22 -- Is public education in a state of crisis?
  • 4/13/22 -- A cautionary note about how schools focus on students' mental health
  • 4/6/22 -- Embed School-based Services into a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System of Student/Learning Supports
  • 3/31/22 --Mental Health in Schools: More than Providing School-Based Services
  • 3/24/22 --How School Boards Can Pursue New Directions to Help Schools Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching
  • 3/17/22 --Transforming Student/Learning Supports: What We've Learned so Far
  • 3/10/22 -- Integrated SERVICES, MTSS, SEL, COMMUNITY SCHOOLS, and???
    What is Widely Advocated is Too Limited but Can Be Built on in ways that Fundamentally Transform How Schools Address Barriers to Learning & Teaching
  • 3/3/22 -- Schools already have good sources for screening a student's problems; they don't need to waste resources by adopting another screening instrument
  • 2/28/22 -- We must transform how schools address barriers to learning
  • 2/24/22 -- Don't Limit Thinking about How Schools Can Best Help Address Students' Mental Health
  • 2/17/22 -- Planning to Apply for a Full Service Community Schools' grant?
  • 2/10/22 -- Improving Student/Learning Supports Requires Reworking the Operational Infrastructure
  • 1/27/22 -- ACTION STEPS for Improving How Schools Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching - including mental health concerns
  • 1/18/22 -- Mental Health in Schools: We won't Argue Against Adding More Counselors, BUT ...


     2021

  • 12/30/21 -- Teachers seeking supports stress that the sheer number of students needing help is overwhelming
  • 12/23/21 -- Addressing Social and Emotional Well-Being: Beyond the Pandemic
  • 12/16/21 -- A Major Lesson from School Shootings
  • 12/9/21 -- Too Many Students Are Not Doing Well: What Schools Need to Do to Help Them Succeed This Year
  • 12/1/21 -- Crisis Response, Recovery, and Prevention
  • 11/26/21 -- Broadly Addressing What Students Have Lost as a Result of the COVID 19 Pandemic
  • 10/21/21 -- Enhancing Tiered Systems of Support & Student/Learning Supports
  • 10/6/21 -- Why Schools Need to Transform Student/Learning Supports and How to Move Forward
  • 9/23/21 -- What Can Schools Do to Counter Unnecessary Referrals for Special Services and Over-Pathological Labeling of Students?
  • 9/21/21 -- Schools and Mental Health: A Position Statement
  • 9/9/21 -- More (Temporary) Money to Improve Behavioral Health: The Good and the Bad for Schools
  • 9/1/21 -- Concerned about Mental Health in Schools? Then Focus on Improving How Schools Control and Socialize Students . . . see Misbehavior, Social Control, and Student Engagement
  • 8/26/21 -- What's Being Done to Improve Efforts to Address Learning, Behavior, and Emotional Problems?
  • 8/19/21 -- 2021-22: Addressing Learning, Behavior, and Emotional Problems Through Better Use of Student and Learning Support Staff
  • 8/12/21 -- About the Growing Demand for Mental Health in Schools
  • 7/29/21 -- What's Wrong with Current State Approaches to Addressing Student Mental Health Need?
  • 7/22/21 -- Evolving Community Schools and Transforming Student/Learning Supports
  • 7/15/21 -- Many Calls for Improving Schools; Too Little Attention to the Problem of Making Complex and Sustainable System Changes
  • 7/8/21 -- Open Letter to Chief School Officers, District Superintendents, School Board Members, Principals, and All Other Education Leaders
  • 7/2/21 -- Mental Health in Schools is Not Just about More Services: It is part of a Comprehensive Approach to Student and Learning Supports
  • 7/1/21 -- Don't Leave Improving Mental Health in Schools Up to Proposed Legislation
  • 6/11/21 -- Everyone's Talking About Students' Mental Health: Schools Need to Avoid Five Potential Pitfalls
  • 6/9/21 -- How are federal stimulus funds being used to address barriers to learning and teaching?
  • 5/28/21 -- About Temporary Relief Funds and Mental Health in Schools
  • 4/26/21 -- Students and Families Not Returning to School? Organize and Mobilize Outreach From Those Who Have
  • 4/23/21 -- About How Temporary Relief Funds for Schools are Used
  • 4/15/21 -- Mental health Concerns are Becoming a School Priority: But How Best to Address the Priority Remains Controversial
  • 3/24/21 -- Here We Go Again: In the Rush to Spend Federal Stimulus Funds Schools are Attending to Immediate Individual Needs Without Addressing the Opportunity to Make Necessary Systemic Improvements
  • 2/18/21 -- Mental Health in Schools: Good! Advocacy for Separate Agenda – Not So Good!
  • 2/11/21 --About Improving Student and Learning Supports: New Directions and New Roles for Student Support Staff
  • 2/4/21 -- What is Personalized Instruction and What’s Needed to Make it Work?
  • 1/28/21 -- Have districts and schools established a leadership team to meet the challenge of the increased number of students manifesting learning, behavior, and emotional problems?
  • 1/21/21 -- About budget cuts and the need to transform student/learning supports 
  • 1/7/21 -- Finding and Reengaging Students who Went Missing During the COVID Pandemic 

     

    2020 

  • 12/23/20 - Mental Health in Schools: Much More than Part of the System of Care Delivery System
  • 12/17/20 - About trauma-informed, ACES, SEL, disengaged students, etc. etc.: Increased Concern, Misdirected Action
  • 12/10/20 - As Students Return to School ... focusing on mental health concerns
  • 11/12/20 --The Biden education transition team has been formed
  • 11/11/20 --Outsourcing, Contracting Out – PRIVATIZATION OF EDUCATION
  • 9/24/20 -- Student Success Requires a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System of Learning Supports
  • 9/2/20 --Increased Numbers of Students with Learning, Behavior, and Emotional Problems: What will Schools Do?
  • 8/5/20 -- Online and At School: Teachers Alone Can’t and Shouldn’t Be Expected to Address the Wide Range of Student Mental
  • 7/30/20 --Re-engaging Disconnected Students Online and at School: Focus on Intrinsic Motivation
  • 7/22/20 -- What is (and isn’t) in Place to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching for the New School Year?
  • 7/19/20 -- Watch out! Much Discussion of MTSS, Little Discussion of Student/Learning Support Staff and Developing MTSS into a Unified, Comprehensive, and Equitable System
  • 7/16/20 --Hypersensitivity to a Student’s Emotional Reactions Can Be Harmful
  • 7/9/20 --CALL TO ACTION: Ensuring that mental health is a high priority as schools reopen
  • 7/2/20 --NEW BOOK JUST PUT ONLINE FOR FREE ACCESS Embedding Mental Health as Schools Change

    As of 3/11/20, the National Initiative has focused on the changes necessary for addressing the immediate and future challenges caused by COVID-19. For updates,     click here
  • 3/4/20 --OPEN LETTER TO SUPERINTENDENTS & SCHOOL BOARDS about budget cuts and layoffs
  • 2/23/20 -- Major talking points for transforming student/learning supports
  • 2/19/20 -- Are gap analyses of student/learning supports being taken to school improvement planning tables?
  • 2/13/20 -- Who’s at the table working toward next year’s school improvements?
  • 2/5/20 -- MTSS: It’s just a starting point for transforming student/learning supports
  • 1/29/20 --The Role of Schools in Promoting Whole Child Development and Learning
  • 1/23/20 --Transforming Schools to Better Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching: While Some Schools Don’t Need to Do It, Most Do!
  • 1/16/20 -- Improving State Legislation to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching

    2019 
  • 12/20/19 -- -- Controversies About School Improvement Efforts
  • 12/19/19 -- More Than a Quarter of Schools Could Be Flagged as in Need of Improvement Under ESSA
  • 12/9/19 -- What Does it Take to Make Fundamental and Sustainable School Improvements? 
  • 12/7/19 -- Reframing Accountability for Whole Child Development and Addressing Barriers to Learning and Teaching
  • 12/3/19 -- Managing Behavior at School: Beyond Overrelying on Behavior Control Strategies
  • 11/25/19 -- School-Community Collaboration: What’s Going Wrong?
  • 11/18/19 -- Meeting learners where they are! Personalized Instruction
  • 11/14/19 -- About MTSS and Addressing Barriers to Learning and Teaching
  • 11/9/19 -- About School Choice
  • 11/1/19 -- School Improvement, School Transformation – Some Straight Talk
  • 10/24/19 -- About Legislation for Mental Health in Schools
  • 10/19/19 -- Did you find this free book helpful?
  • 10/17/19 -- Why Aren't the Leading Advocates for School Improvement Talking About Transforming Student and Learning Supports?
  • 10/10/19 -- Why Aren’t Schools Doing More to Improve Student and Learning Supports?
  • 9/12/19 -- Are you concerned about how to improve student and learning supports?
  • 9/5/19 -- There seems to be no end to what teachers are expected to learn
  • 8/29/19 --First Concern in Improving Mental Health in Schools: Above All Do No Harm
  • 8/1/19 -- Improving Schools: Why is it so hard?  
  •   7/25/19 -- Enhanced School Climate Emerges from Whole School Improvements 
  •   7/12/19 --What Really is a COMPREHENSIVE Approach to Mental Health in Schools?
  •   7/11/19 -- Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child: More Buzzwords?
  •   6/20/19 --How Well Do State Legislatures Focus on Improving School Efforts to Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching & Re engage Disconnected Students?
  •   4/24/19 --Follow-up to legislators re. Legislation to move school improvement policy to a three component approach
  •   4/24/19 -- Follow-up re. Legislation to move school improvement policy to a three component approach
  • 4/4/19 -- Improving How Schools Address Barriers to Learning & Teaching: Escaping Old Ideas and Moving Beyond Current Trends
  • 3/9/19 -- --Informing other stakeholders about efforts with state legislatures
  • 2/21/19 -- Legislation for moving school improvement policy to a three component approach 
  • 2/7/19 -- --What are States Doing to Help Schools Address Barriers to Learning and Teaching?
  • 1/31/19 -- --Update re. our emails to state legislators re. moving to a three component approach to school improvement
  • 1/23/19 -- -- About the Legislation to move school improvement policy to a three component approach
  • 1/16/19 -- -- More about Legislation to move school improvement policy to a three component approach
  •   1/10/19 -- Legislation to move school improvement policy to a three component approach 2018 
  • 9/9/18 -- Safe Schools and Mental Health: More of the Same or an Opportunity to Really Improve Schools
  • 9/5/18 -- Moving Forward with School Improvement this Year
  • 8/26/18 -- Center Resources you may have missed if you were away during the summer
  • 6/11/18 -- ANNOUNCING NEW BOOK: Improving School Improvement
  • 4/3/18 -- About School Response to School Shooting
  • 3/9/18 --Agenda for Workgroups Focused on Enhancing School Safety As
  • 3/2/18 -- About Threat Assessment  
  • 2/16/18 -- About School Shootings
  • 2 /12/18 -- How well are schools addressing barriers to learning and teaching?
  • 2/5/18 -- ESSA and new directions for addressing barriers to learning and teaching
  • 1/14/18 -- Equity of opportunity: A pressing concern for school improvement
  • 1/7/18 -- So much has changed; so little has changed --Where do schools go from here? 

    From 2016

    From 2015

     
    Contact Information:
    CENTER FOR MENTAL HEALTH IN SCHOOLS
    UCLA Department of Psychology
    Box 951563
    Los Angeles, CA 90095-1563
    (310) 825-3634
    Email Ltaylor@ucla.edu
    Contact