About the Southern Coast R-TAC
The Southern Coast Regional Technical Assistance Center (SC R-TAC), led by the San Diego County Office of Education in partnership with the Orange County Department of Education, Imperial County Office of Education, and Community Schools Learning Exchange, supports districts and schools in the Southern California region in building capacity to drive their community schools efforts.
Members of the SC R-TAC have expertise in areas such as positive behavioral interventions and supports, multi-tiered systems of support, school safety, restorative justice, and mental health in schools. Their goal is to serve as a collaborative partner with districts and schools, supporting, connecting, and providing training on current trends and best practices that focus on the conceptualization, planning, implementation, and sustainability of a thriving community school.
What we do
As a regional technical assistance center, we frequently collaborate with the State Transformational Assistance Center (S-TAC) and the California Department of Education (CDE). We serve as a liaison to our region, sharing best practices with our member districts and assisting prospective California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP) applicants with tasks related to applying for CCSPP grants, and for grant recipients we provide support for planning, implementing, and assessing the effectiveness of improving and sustaining community school initiatives. We accomplish this through a variety of ways, including: Communities of Transformative Practices, webinars, support for individual local educational agencies (LEAs), collaborative opportunities, and more.
How we support Local educational agencies
Our goal is to help LEAs develop the community school practices that best support the needs of each community. We accomplish this by supporting them in:
- Conducting a comprehensive school and community assets map and needs assessment
- Improving authentic family and community engagement, in the languages spoken in the community
- Developing programming and strengthening relationships to promote positive, supportive, and racially just school climates
- Establishing and supporting collaborative leadership and shared decision-making practices at the LEA and school site levels
- Establishing a web presence to support regional community school activities and share best practices
- Ensuring that there are interdisciplinary, cross curricular and dynamic collaborative practices at both the LEA and school site level that maximizes engagement and facilitates processes that are inclusive of all expertise, wisdom, and experience
- Creating, deepening, and expanding community partnerships
- Developing sustainable funding sources
- Coordinating services across child-serving agencies, municipalities, governmental entities, and schools
- Accessing and combining funding for services from multiple revenue sources