Lindsey Kaler, Nallely Beulah Aceves-Romero, Jacob Alonso, Andre Anderson-Thompson, Monica Arpino, Nicole Arshan, Lakshmi Balasubramanian, James Bridgeforth, Desiree Carver-Thomas, Miguel Casar, Linda Darling-Hammond, Jeimee Estrada, Philip Fisher, Laura E. Hernández, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Antero Garcia, Kevin Gee, Laura E. Hernández, Alexandria Hurtt, Mary Helen Immordino-Yang, Eliana Katz, Tara Kini, Douglas Knecht, Michal Kurlaender, Christopher J. Lemons, Melanie Leung-Gagné, Sihong Liu, Susanna Loeb, Anna Maier, Julie Marsh, Susan Moffitt, Laura Mulfinger, Misbah Naseer, Michaela Krug O'Neill, Amanda Pickett, Jeremy Prim, Vandeka Rodgers, Estefania Rodriguez Sanchez, Carolyn Sattin-Bajaj, Beth Schueler, Lucy Sorensen, Mariana De Franca Steil, Patricia Strach, Christina Sun, Walker Swain, Akunna Uka, Radhika Unnikrishnan, Wesley Wei, Maisha Winn, Lawrence Winn, Peter Yu, Lauren Ziegler
Student well-being includes basic needs such as safety, social and emotional health, and meaningful opportunities to learn. It is shaped within an ecosystem of relationships and conditions that extend across families, schools, and communities. This brief draws on several Getting Down to Facts III technical reports that examine student well-being in California, including research on absenteeism, stress, marginalized student groups, and the community and developmental contexts that shape students’ experiences. Across these studies, student well-being emerges not as a separate goal from academic learning, but as one of the conditions that makes learning possible.
Several reports provide evidence that California’s recent investments, including major commitments to community schools and Transitional Kindergarten, have shown promise for improving students’ well-being and learning (Fisher et al.; Hernández et al.). Other reports identify ways California’s education systems could better support well-being, including stronger staff training, more targeted supports for marginalized students, and more concrete strategies for building relationships with families from diverse backgrounds. These reports offer insight into how California schools are currently supporting student well-being and where those efforts could be strengthened.
Key Findings
1. Well-being and academics are closely intertwined. Academic and social-emotional outcomes often move together, and interventions that improve one can also improve the other. Recent evidence also suggests that students are increasingly missing school for reasons linked to well-being, including sadness and bullying, which can negatively impact academic growth (Hernández et al.; Gee and Yu).
2. Strong relationships are central to both well-being and academic achievement, especially for vulnerable student populations. Research highlights the importance of relationship-based learning in adolescence and the foundational role of trusting relationships for Black and Latine families’ school experiences (Immordino-Yang and Darling-Hammond; Garcia et al.; Winn et al.).
3. Concrete and relational investments may support both well-being and academic outcomes, but current supports remain uneven. Strategies such as community schools, Transitional Kindergarten, and high-impact tutoring show promise for improving student learning and support structures (Fisher et al.; Hernández et al.; Loeb and Ziegler). At the same time, many educators and support staff report feeling underprepared to meet the needs of vulnerable students, and evidence suggests that professional development can support educators in implementing approaches that can advance improved outcomes when implemented consistently.
4. Better data are necessary to assess and support student well-being, especially for marginalized groups. California has improved some data systems, but major gaps remain for groups such as LGBTQ+ students, immigrant-origin students, and the staff who support them. Those gaps make it harder to identify what is working and where additional support is needed (Sun et al.; Sattin-Bajaj; Kaler et al.; Lemons et al.).
5. Student well-being is shaped by broader social, economic, and political conditions beyond the school itself. Rising costs, federal immigration enforcement, and broader political conflict affect the well-being of students, families, and educators, especially among already vulnerable groups. These broader pressures shape both how students experience school and how school systems function (Garcia et al.; Sun et al.; Sattin-Bajaj; Fisher et al.; Marsh et al.).
