Office of Student and Family Support (SFS)

The Office of Student and Family Support (SFS) works in partnership with educators, schools, students, families, and other agencies and organizations across the Commonwealth to advance the Center for Educational Options and Department's goals and mission. Our programs and initiatives aim to ensure access to high quality, equity focused, and student-centered pre-K–grade 12 education and strengths-based supports.

This work helps further the Department's strategic priorities , including but not limited to strengthening social emotional competencies, health, and safety , and this work is aligned with Holistic Support and Enrichment as described in the Commissioner's Our Way Forward report.

Examples of SFS program strategies that cultivate student achievement and success include:

• creating learning environments that are safe, healthy, and supportive, anti-racist, and culturally responsive and sustaining;
• making data-informed decisions to address opportunity, achievement, and proficiency gaps;
• infusing service-learning, multi-disciplinary, and/or meaningful project-based activities into curricula;
• providing professional development and technical assistance for continuous program development and improvement;
• engaging students and their families/guardians in support of student learning and wellbeing;
• strengthening comprehensive school mental health systems, grounded in multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS);
• supporting smooth transitions between grades and schools; and
• promoting interagency and school/community collaboration.

Unit Programs and Related Initiatives:

• Additional Learning Opportunities
• Early Learning
• Educational Stability
• Family Engagement
• Promoting Adolescent Health through School-Based HIV/STD Prevention and Surveillance
• Safe & Healthy Learning Environments
• U.S. Presidential Scholarship Program
• Additional Related Programs & Efforts

Last Updated: January 23, 2025