The pandemic has revealed that teachers have been doing more than just teaching students academics. Long before COVID-19 school closures, teachers were storing snacks in their desk drawer for the occasional hungry student or keeping their classroom open to kids during lunch. While many schools do not have systems in place to support teachers’ often invisible work, the community school model provides some strategies to lighten the load on schools and their educators. California is investing big in the model and the rest of the country is watching to see how it plays out.

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This episode was reported by Nimah Gobir. MindShift is produced by Ki Sung, Nimah Gobir, Jessica Plazcek and Katrina Schwartz. Seth Samuel is our sound designer. Additional support from Kyana Moghadam, Jen Chien, Gerald Fermin, Ethan Lindsey and Holly Kernan.