New Community Schools Prospectus

Annex A: The full service school in the USA

The concept of the Full Service School emerged in the USA during the early 1980s to provide integrated, school-based health and social services as a means of supporting individuals and families in combating educational underachievement in disadvantaged areas. During the 1980s and the 1990s in the USA, the Full Service School concept rapidly gained momentum in educational and social reform movements.

Legislation has been passed in a number of states, for example in Florida, which has supported the development of Full Service Schools to enhance successfully the capacity of school health service programmes and to provide community services such as nutritional advice, assistance in applying for public benefits and adult education.

In California, 'Healthy Start' legislation has led to school-based services being provided covering health care, mental health services, substance abuse prevention and treatment, family support and parenting education, academic support and youth development services. As a result of this momentum, a wide variety of models of Full Service Schools today exists across many states in the USA.

Almost all Full Service Schools have programmes that address quality education, eg developing basic skills, improving parental involvement and team teaching, together with some provision of health and social services.

However, there is no single recipe for the additional component programmes and services a Full Service School offers. Some schools emphasise student-focused programmes and services while others incorporate additional family and community focused provision. In some of the simplest models, Full Service Schools have developed school-linked health clinics for students. In more sophisticated models, Full Service Schools have provided a comprehensive range of on-site and referral services for students, families and the wider community. These can range from health care and careers services to employment training, housing and family welfare services. Some programmes are integrated into the curriculum and services are accessible during the school day while others are offered before and after school hours, at weekends and during holidays.

An important feature of such schools in the USA is that the programmes and services they provide are often determined by the needs of the local community through broad-based collaboration of schools, public and private agencies, parents and other members of the community.

Common to all Full Service Schools is the philosophy that they are attempting to provide the type of prevention, treatment and support services which children and, where appropriate, families and communities need to succeed. In all models the focus is on breaking the 'culture of failure' that strangles some schools, and improving the lives and educational opportunities of disadvantaged children, young people and families within communities.

As a result, there are some impressive success stories in some of the most disadvantaged urban and rural areas in the USA in which the various models of Full Service Schools have been established.

In terms of benefits to the young people there is evidence of:

improved attendance rates; improved early intervention and early warning action; better attainment in examinations; improved employment prospects; less drug abuse; and fewer teenage pregnancies.

Full Service Schools have also brought benefits to the wider community through:

reduction in crime and violence in the community; overall improved health within families; better access to services and resources which might not otherwise be readily available to them; and more productive partnerships between schools, parents and the wider community.

Schools too have benefited.

There is provision of expert services and counselling in schools which support teachers and pupils through a range of staff working together. This leads to more efficient use of resources. The 'one-stop' school-based service centre has enhanced the role of the school as a central place in the community. There are improved communications between the school and home. Parental alienation towards schools and mistrust of parents towards schools and teachers are reduced. Some disaffected young people are drawn back into the school system having used services offered in the schools.

Also, there are benefits to the external support and service agencies.

There is better and improved communication between these agencies which results in more efficient and effective service provision. This closer collaboration leads to improved effectiveness and better value for money. Agencies are based in or work more closely with schools which allows them to become more involved with their cases, leading to a reduction in time making referrals and in the following up of cases.