Culmination of Insights and Actions: Employer Sustainable Funding for K–12 Investments in Prevention Education

As part of the Milken Institute’s Employer Action Exchange, this Culmination of Insights is part two of a four-part series. This article highlights system-level gaps for schools and employers through K–12 social investment and measurement. Click here to see the introduction, background, and methods for this project.

Funding is critical for advancing prevention efforts within education. Many school districts will begin experiencing at least some level of a funding cliff due to the unprecedented Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief III Fund grant ending on September 30, 2024. States had until January 2025 to liquidate their funds, and those with approved extensions have until March 2026. Ninety percent of local education agencies were awarded these funds (i.e., over 16,000 out of 18,243). In their absence, many schools will be left with even more limited resources and struggle to fill funding gaps needed to retain critical social and emotional staff in payroll and to protect programs from curriculum or headcount reductions. The looming gap in school funding levels presents an opportunity for employers to engage with the communities in which they operate by investing in sustainable funding for whole-person health education. Many of these educational initiatives are included as part of unfunded state mandates. Financial support from the private sector to bring high-quality, research-backed educational resources into the classroom can go a long way in increasing the goodwill these organizations can earn in their communities.

Public health survey respondents defined social impact as it relates to education as:

• “Preparing youth and young adults to be advocates and peer-to-peer supporters of mental health as part of a curriculum and through after-school and out-of-school learning opportunities.”
• “Empowering students and giving them the agency, skills, and community to tackle problems in their community when they see them.”
• “Students become health ambassadors.”
• “Educating children from pre-K through high school to a competency in well-being will strengthen social bonds, lessen disruptive behaviors, and inform collaborative relationships among adults who matriculate from such learning.”
• “Measurable and lasting improvement in students' well-being, academic performance, and life skills through equitable access to resources and personalized support. Empowering educators to meet the diverse behavioral and mental health needs of students, ensuring that every learner can thrive emotionally and academically.”
• “Safe learning environments - physically, emotionally, socially, and academically.”

Employers across sectors and industries have a vested interest in impacting the health and overall well-being of the next generation in the workforce, demonstrated in part through employer social impact investments. In the Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose Giving in Numbers: 2023 Edition study, companies were asked to identify their top focus areas based on the program focus. In this study, 48 percent of the most common programs were concentrated on either K–12 education (28 percent) or health (20 percent). Currently, health and education investments are categorized separately, and as such, evaluation of projects and outcomes will require further discussion.

Sustainable funding mechanisms for whole-person health and health equity education are a prominent gap identified through our mixed-methods research. Schools are funding preventive learning opportunities through an array of avenues, including differing local, state, or federal grant programs, as well as employer social impact initiatives. For example, San Mateo, California’s United for Youth Vision 2030 (part of the national framework advocated by the National Center for Safe Supportive Schools) outlines an action plan focused on five central priorities. This plan offers recommendations for public and private partners to leverage their own resources and strategic investments to enhance youth behavioral health and well-being.

Recommendations for Schools and Employers

Insight: Employers have an opportunity to deliver meaningful change for their communities and invest in social impact initiatives that advance preventive, whole-health education in schools by focusing on both health and education collectively. Employers can aid in funding or scaling promising ideas and programs that could benefit from broader exposure and subsequent integration, in part given the recent funding cliff detailed above. Offering these programs in local communities is as important as ensuring access to these resources in historically overlooked low- to moderate-income communities. Ensuring all students have access to the same type and quality of education is an integral part of helping ensure access and a promising future for all students.

Action:

• Incentivize and evaluate health and education social impact investments as a collective asset to understand and meet the unique needs of working parents and the next generation in the workforce.

Insight: Employers and schools intending to fund whole-person health education can maximize their impact by leveraging evaluation strategies and prioritizing partnerships. According to the responses in an anonymous survey for this project, initiatives need to be empowering, collaborative, and community-driven.

Actions:

• Measure investments in education and health to determine the extent to which investments can assist in the sustainability of initiatives.
• Define and map where investments can make a difference in instructional content, capital funds, student wellness, and/or technological devices. Work with schools and community partners to maximize where funding is allocated.
• Analyze where these investments and subsequent measurable outcomes can be amplified via an employer impact report or other internal/external materials.
• Be aware of the wider impact, economically and socially, on students, educators, parents/caregivers, and the community.

Acknowledgments?

The Milken Institute is grateful to EVERFI for supporting the Institute’s independent work on employer social impact and preventive educational insight and action design via the Employer Action Exchange.