Projects

Benefits Access

How can New York City Community Schools serve as hubs for public benefits enrollment?

Partners & Funders

The Project

Many New York City students face attendance and learning barriers related to financial and housing instability. PPL worked with the Department of Education and Single Stop to leverage Community Schools as a place for families to enroll in benefits, ensuring that families get the help they need and students can learn without impediment.

The Outcome

We designed, field-tested, and evaluated tools and interactions to connect families to public benefits at their child’s school. The resulting program launched across the network of nearly 300 community schools, serving more than a quarter-million low-income students and their families.

Benefits Access

How can New York City Community Schools serve as hubs for public benefits enrollment?

Partners & Funders

The Project

Many New York City students face attendance and learning barriers related to financial and housing instability. PPL worked with the Department of Education and Single Stop to leverage Community Schools as a place for families to enroll in benefits, ensuring that families get the help they need and students can learn without impediment.

The Outcome

We designed, field-tested, and evaluated tools and interactions to connect families to public benefits at their child’s school. The resulting program launched across the network of nearly 300 community schools, serving more than a quarter-million low-income students and their families.

Project Background

The New York City Department of Education (DOE) knows that students who are missing school regularly or whose essential needs are not being met — from going hungry to not having glasses to read — face critical obstacles to learning in the classroom.

At the same time, many families and students who are eligible for public benefits programs–such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)–do not apply. An evaluation commissioned by the Robin Hood Foundation estimated that about 560,000 eligible New Yorkers were not receiving SNAP benefits – also known as food stamps – in 2014 (Civis Analytics, 2016).

The New York City Community Schools Initiative is a central strategy of the DOE to achieve an equitable education system where all students have the resources they need to succeed. Each of the 227 Community Schools is paired with a lead Community-Based Organization (CBO). These Community School partnerships not only ensure that students receive high-quality instruction, but also connect their families and neighborhoods to social services and helpful resources.

Recognizing that hunger and housing instability are major causes of stress in students’ lives, the New York City DOE partnered with Single Stop, a national benefits-enrollment-navigator, and the Public Policy Lab to explore how Community Schools might offer benefits enrollment on-site so that families can get the help they need and students can learn without impediment.

The outcome was Benefits Access, a program that connects families to benefits in public schools by equipping school staff with a strategy and toolkit to consistently refer families to benefits. The long-term goal of Benefits Access is to increase 1) staff referrals to benefits and services and 2) family enrollment in those benefits and services.

0

Schools visited

0
+

Staff and families engaged

What We Found

Research Approach
Over seven months, we visited 21 schools across the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens. We talked to nearly 200 people—including community school directors, principals, guidance counselors, parent coordinators, teachers, school staff, and families—to learn what schools do to connect families to benefits and services.  In 30- to 60-minute research sessions with school staff, we discussed topics such as their current roles and responsibilities, top needs among families in their school, effective strategies they have used to engage with families, and the preferences and barriers within their school to connecting families to services.

Field Research

PPL staff traveled to 21 schools and spoke to over 200 people, including teachers, families, and staff.

Following fieldwork, we analyzed the rich information from our research by identifying which needs were shared among families and staff and what best practices were already in place. We observed that teams move through similar steps when working with families to connect them to benefits and services—staff become aware of a family’s need, they work together to determine who in the school can best serve their need, and then they do the necessary research to connect that family to a service provider. With this in mind, we created a set of concepts—materials, tools, and processes to further explore and refine with staff and families.

Field Research

PPL staff traveled to 21 schools and spoke to over 200 people, including teachers, families, and staff.

Co-Design
We invited six schools to participate in collaborative design sessions with us to assess the functionality and usability of our initial concepts. During these co-design sessions, we asked staff to prioritize our ideas from most useful to least useful and most meaningful to least meaningful. During co-design, we also explored how teams plan together and distribute work. With these lessons in mind, we asked the six schools to run a brief two-week field test, where they put the concepts into practice. The goal was to quickly identify any challenges or staff insights, then improve the materials before we shared them with all 21 participating schools during the pilot.

What We Designed

The Benefits Access Strategy & Toolkit, developed by the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Community Schools (OCS) and the Public Policy Lab (PPL), equips school staff to refer their families to public benefits and local services. Benefits Access empowers staff to prepare, reach out, and connect families to benefits and services through a set of tools that can be adapted to their school community and team capacity.

Benefits Access Strategy 
The Benefits Access Strategy is a three-phase approach (prepare, reach out, and connect) that schools can incorporate into their ongoing work throughout the year.

Benefits Access Toolkit
The Benefits Access Toolkit is a set of ten flexible tools designed to support schools in preparing their teams, reaching out to families, and connecting families to benefits. 

Tools to Prepare

This suite of tools helps schools prepare by planning activities for the year and learning about benefits and services.

Benefits Access How-To Guide

A step-by-step guide with instructions and worksheets for launching Benefits Access in school, planning on an yearly basis, planning on a monthly basis, and reflecting on yearly outcomes.

Benefits 101 Trainings

30- to 45-minute webinars led by representatives from city agencies and local organizations that include information on benefit and services programs and how families can access them. Each webinar provides the information schools need to confidently make referrals and guide families in the application process.

Local Resource List

A reference sheet that helps schools keep track of the top resources and services available in their neighborhood, and make quick referrals to families once they’ve identified top organizations.

Title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. In mauris sapien, faucibus eu ipsum hendrerit, ultricies egestas lectus. Nunc fermentum facilisis.

Tools to Reach Out

This suite of tools helps schools reach out to families about accessing benefits and services.

Benefits Survey

A survey that allows schools to gather data from their families on the benefits and services they’re interested in and how they would like to learn about them. Families who would like a follow-up can also share their contact information and preferred method of communication.

Outreach Flyers

Specific outreach messages for each of the six benefits types. These flyers can be used to advertise the benefits that are most relevant to each schools’ families. Flyers can be displayed in school offices, hallways, and anywhere that families may find them.

Outreach Poster

A poster that advertises the benefits and services to which schools can connect families. Posters can be displayed in the main office, in school hallways, at events, or in any spaces where families gather.

Outreach Scripts

Sample language that schools can use to reach out to families about Benefits Access with an easy and adaptable format that can be copy-and-pasted for emails and social media posts.

Tools to Connect

This suite of tools helps schools connect families to benefits and services, and then follow up with them about their experience.

Benefits 101 Sheets

An overview of resources for six benefits types: housing, food, cash, immigration, health, and employment. Each double-sided sheet includes which agencies provide benefits, how eligibility is determined, and next steps families can take. The info sheets can be emailed/texted/ posted, handed out during outreach at school events, or used to guide conversations.

Tracking Sheet​

A Google spreadsheet to track school staff’s conversations with families. Schools can log the family’s information, the benefits they were interested in, how they heard about Benefits Access, where they were referred, when schools should follow up, and any feedback about their experience. The spreadsheet also includes an Evaluation Dashboard to collect key metrics.

Action Plan

A tool that can be used to plan out a family’s next steps during one-on-one conversations. It includes space to note which benefit the family is interested in, what their next steps are after considering their options and eligibility, where they can go for further assistance, and their feelings coming out of the conversation. The family takes the action plan with them.

What We Implemented

After the field test, we refined the concepts into stand-alone prototypes and the 21 schools tested them during a four-week pilot period. Each week of the pilot included new activities to test, including: planning their strategy, attending webinars to learn about city benefits and services, surveying families about which benefits and services they would like to access, sharing outreach flyers with families, scheduling one-on-one conversations with families to explore their options, and reporting feedback.

During this period, we also attended six schools’ Community School forums and conducted a total of 70 surveys and interviews with families. In these interactions, we asked families which benefits and services they would like to access, whether they’d approached their school for benefits help, and what kind of support they’d prefer. Families were most interested in housing, employment, and health benefits. They said they’d most appreciate referrals to organizations, help figuring out their eligibility, and coaching on benefits applications. However, most had never reached out to school staff about benefits, either because they were not aware they could or because they didn’t feel comfortable asking for assistance. 

After gathering feedback from participating pilot schools, we refined the tools once more, and designed the final “Benefits Access How To Guide” to aid school staff in making referrals. We launched the full program across the network of nearly 300 community schools, serving more than a quarter million low-income students and their families.

Get in Touch

Interested in partnering with us?

Join Us

Follow Along

Enter your email below to subscribe to our occasional newsletter.

Wondering what you’ve missed?


Check out our

Social Media

Donate

The Public Policy Lab is a tax-exempt

501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.