The collaborative model proposed by many goes beyond providing integrated services for school children. Schools are seen as the site or broker for community- or neighborhood-based social programs and services, such as health clinics, welfare, criminal justice, alcohol and drug abuse, and recreational programs. These services would be cooperatively planned and provided (Kirst in Mitchell and Scott 1993). As Jeffers and Olebe (1994) point out, it isn't difficult to see that supporting learning means supporting families. By working with other agencies and acting as the host site for services, schools can value and support families and at the same time, allow administrators and teachers to focus on their primary objective: student learning (4).

There have been numerous, sometimes dramatic examples of school reform and the movement toward integrated, school-based services since the late 1980's. Among these is the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA), which was spawned by a Supreme Court ruling which struck down Kentucky's existing system of public school funding as being in violation of a state constitutional mandate that all children be provided with adequate education. Especially significant about the ensuing reform is that it went beyond academic matters to address the broader issues affecting children.

KERA is grounded on the precepts that (1) all children should begin school ready to learn, (2) parental and family involvement is critical for educational success, and (3) the community should provide services to increase the educative capacities of families and schools.

Under the new system, schools and social service agencies act as partners in education. Family Resource/Youth Services Centres are provided in or near schools throughout the state of Kentucky, and coordinate social service delivery to children from pre-school to high school, and their families.

Closer to home, in 1992 the Saskatchewan government began exploring more coordinated and collaborative approaches to delivering services to at-risk children and families. A number of pilots for integrated school-linked services were undertaken across the provinces, with the objectives of:

• providing the physical, social, emotional, cultural, and spiritual supports children require in order to learn, and to remove the barriers to learning and to success in life experienced by children at risk;
• create a collaborative culture among human service systems and providers in order to establish a coordinated, comprehensive, and responsive continuum of human services;