School districts are being asked to do more amid increasingly complex challenges and uneven resources. Enrollment is changing. Costs continue to rise. Pandemic-era federal funding has ended. Yet expectations for how schools support students and families remain high.
For district leaders, philanthropy can play an important role in navigating this environment. But the strongest partnerships rarely begin with an urgent request for funding. They begin with relationships.
In our new white paper, The Next Chapter for K-12 Philanthropy, we explore how K–12 leaders can move from transactional fundraising toward long-term community partnership.
Drawing on real-world experiences from some of the nation’s largest school districts, experts examine how leaders can:
Build relationships with businesses, foundations, and community organizations before an urgent need arises
Engage the community in the district’s vision and priorities
Find the intersection between what partners care about and what students need
Look beyond financial contributions to expertise, mentoring, internships, advocacy, and other forms of support
Build the trust and accountability that sustain partnerships over time
For superintendents, the takeaway isn’t that they need to become professional fundraisers. It’s that strong community partnerships are built through leadership, trust and a shared commitment to student success
As Superintendent Jhone Ebert explains, “The future is not simply about financial contributions. It is about bringing together the expertise, resources, relationships, and creativity of an entire community to solve challenges and create opportunities for students.”
CEO & Founder Carranza Educational Consulting, LLC Former District Superintendent
Jarrett Ransom
Senior Advisor and Lead Senior Ambassador Sanford Institute of Philanthropy
Embracing Bullying Prevention Month: How Harmony Fosters Connection and Well-Being
October 15, 2026
Embracing Bullying Prevention Month: How Harmony Fosters Connection and Well-Being
“By incorporating healthy learning in every lesson and activity, we can alleviate many tensions that can occur in the classroom between students. Open communication and fostering a team environment allows kids to connect!”
– Jennifer Wienke, Program Development Coordinator, Fairbanks, Alaska
Understanding the Impact of Bullying on Student Mental Health
October marks National Bullying Prevention Month, a crucial time to reflect on the alarming and disheartening statistics surrounding bullying and mental health in schools. Independent studies show roughly 22% of third graders are bullied two to three times a month or more. Bullying starts in the elementary years, peaks when youth hit middle school, and hardens into something students stop reporting by high school – younger kids are fare more likely to tell an adult and that willingness shrinks every year.
Now’s the time to think about what we can do to turn around these statistics and support our children in all environments.
The Role of Healthy Learning
Sanford Harmony recognizes that promoting well-being and creating a welcoming environment requires intentional strategies. Our Harmony resources play a pivotal role in strengthening young people’s sense of belonging and engagement. l. Integrating healthy learning principles into daily lessons and activities empowers youth to navigate their emotions, build strong relationships, and contribute to a positive, connected community.
Addressing Chronic Absenteeism Through Connection
When young people feel safe and supported, they are more likely to actively engage in learning and participation in opportunities. That’s why Harmony offers resources, such as Quick Connection Cards, to promote healthy relationships among peers and caring adults. By strengthening relationships and creating a sense of belonging, these resources encourage meaningful participation and support positive developmental outcomes.
Creating a Sense of Belonging in School
The well-being of youth is at the forefront of our mission. Healthy learning activities, such as Mindful Minute or Relaxation Station, teach youth vital skills for managing emotions and resolving conflicts peacefully. This proactive approach can not only diminish instances of bullying but also equip young people with tools to advocate for themselves and others.
Quick Insights from Harmony EAG Advisors
We asked our Harmony Educator Advisor Group (EAG) to share what strategies and resources they use to support thriving healthy classroom environments and how they can be proactive when it comes to addressing bullying in the classroom.
Q: October is National Bullying Prevention Month. What can educators do to prevent bullying from becoming an issue in their schools? How can they keep students excited about coming to school to learn every day?
A: By incorporating relationship skills in every lesson and activity, we can alleviate many tensions that can occur in the classroom between students. Open communication and fostering a team environment allows kids to connect!
— Jennifer Wienke, Program Development Coordinator, Fairbanks, Alaska
Q: What strategies do you use to keep the sense of community strong and minimize bullying at your school?
A: We use Quick Connection Cards to continue to build community. Our administrator includes anti-bullying messages during morning announcements. We also have Buddy Readers with the middle schoolers reading to K–2nd students to enhance the family community feel where we all take care of each other.
Q: What strategies do you use to keep the sense of community strong and minimize bullying at your school?
A: Preventing bullying involves creating a safe, inclusive, and respectful environment. At our school, we establish clear behavior expectations and emphasize kindness through daily interactions and classroom discussions. Harmony lessons help students manage emotions and communicate effectively. Building strong relationships allows me to understand their needs and provide support.
— Allison Robb, Dean of Academics, Tucson, Arizona
Q: What strategies do you use to keep the sense of community strong and minimize bullying at your school?
A: In 5th grade, I work with my students to develop leadership skills and teach them how to stand up for others without becoming bullies. I love using the Battle the Bullybot in the Harmony Game Room App, which helps students develop the language necessary for teamwork and communication.
Harmony is always on a mission to foster an inclusive school environment where all young people feel valued and connected. With Harmony resources youth serving professionals can foster belonging, reduce bullying, and support the well-being of young people. Here are three ways to do it:
Incorporate Relationship Skills in Classrooms: A 2022 analysis of the Harmony Curriculum (Third Edition) found that the program promoted prosocial behaviors (88% effective or very effective), positive communication skills (93% effective or very effective), emotional and behavior management (86% effective or very effective and solves problems that arise in the classroom (92% effective or very effective) (Sanford Harmony).
Provide Ongoing Professional Development: Harmony offers the Harmony Leader Certificate and the Harmony Teacher Certificate. Both certificates provide the key structures and components to support healthy, thriving learning environments. Participants can also earn Continuing Education Units, and use them toward an advanced degree at National University.
Strengthen Parent-School Bonds:A strong sense of belonging extends beyond the classroom or program setting. Organizations can use Harmony resources to create meaningful opportunities for families and caregivers to connect, such as family engagement events, Harmony Meet Ups, or gratitude-focused activities. These experiences help strengthen relationships among youth, families, and adults, creating a more connected and supportive community.
Harmony Plus is a premium digital resource that enhances the experiences of youth and the adults who support them with new and improved leadership tools, engaging learning resources, and implementation support. Foster a strong sense of belonging where every young person feels connected, valued, and excited to participate each day, powered by Harmony Plus.
I was adopted at birth, and a sense of belonging has always shaped how I understand myself. One of my earliest memories of not belonging came in school when I was pulled from the classroom because I struggled to read. Thankfully, a teacher named Mrs. Schultz intervened,and helped me return to grade level. That experience — being helped back into the room by a person, not a machine — is the lens through which I now view artificial intelligence in education.
Thirteen years ago, my co-founder and I built Newsela on a simple premise: Students of all reading abilities want to stay in the classroom with their peers, and everyone deserves access to more engaging, more authentic content. We bet on teachers, not computers, to lead instruction. That bet looks more important today than ever.
What AI in Education Can’t Replicate
Since AI arrived in classrooms nearly four years ago — not as a solution to a known problem, but as what MIT’s Justin Reich calls an “arrival technology” — much of the industry has chased a vision of AI as an all-knowing tutor, capable of moving any student from the 50th to the 98th percentile. That vision rests on a single, unreplicated 1984 study. I call the belief in it the “closed loop fallacy.” It works reasonably well in narrow, sequenced domains like early literacy or arithmetic, but largely fails in messier, more human ones.
Mike Goldstein, founder of Match Education, has spent years studying what makes tutoring work. Effective tutors know how to get learners to express their understanding, sense when to shift gears, and build authentic rapport. Research shows the strongest results come when humans tutor humans — and when AI is used well, it supports the tutor, not the student directly. Tools like Khanmigo illustrate the gap. Engagement has been limited and interactions have felt, as one parent put it, like asking kids to “do their best for robots” instead of people.
Why Relationships Still Require Human Connection
The more promising path isn’t replacing relationships with AI but preparing students to use it wisely alongside them. Teachers in Newark have developed a “driver’s license” model that shifts students from passive to active AI use.
A sixth-grade teacher I visited in Millburn, New Jersey, has her students document what the AI said, what they agreed with, what they didn’t, and what they’ll do next — slowing down judgment instead of outsourcing it.
Meanwhile, research on teens’ AI chatbot use is telling us something important: kids aren’t turning to AI because they’re lonely. They’re turning to it because they don’t want to burden the people they love. That should worry all of us who care about adolescent development, since it’s human connection — not chatbots — that teaches young people to self-regulate and handle adversity. Until they develop the resourcefulness to reach out to their peers and those around them, the path to belonging will remain significantly harder.
My own path to belonging came not through academics but through sports — ultimate frisbee, specifically, where I met my wife and my future Newsela co-founder. AI may still transform education, especially in how we assess learning. But the deepest, most durable impact on our kids will keep coming from human relationships. Amidst the upheaval precipitated by AI’s arrival in classrooms, let’s not lose sight of this.
About Dan Cogan-Drew
Dan Cogan-Drew is Co-Founder and Chief Academic Officer at Newsela, where he leads learning insights that drive student outcomes. He began his career with Teach for America and has taught in public and private schools and the U.S. Navy. He hosts the podcast AI in the Classroom-Daily and is a two-time world champion ultimate frisbee player. He lives in Maplewood, NJ—the birthplace of ultimate frisbee—where he serves as president of CHS Ultimate, a non-profit devoted to community participation in the sport.
Dan shared these insights at the Sanford Relationship Science Summit on October 1, 2026 in La Jolla. You can learn more about this topic on his podcast.
The Common Thread Behind Attendance, Engagement, Behavior and Achievement
By Nick Yoder, PhD Associate Vice President, Innovation & Research
The Common Thread Behind Attendance, Engagement, Behavior and Achievement
District leaders are facing a long list of pressing issues: youth mental health, chronic absenteeism, student behavior, engagement and belonging, academic achievement and workforce readiness—all while managing tight budgets, staffing pressures and competing priorities.
Many of those pressures share a backdrop of growing disconnection. Young people report high levels of loneliness, and a growing number are turning to AI chatbots for companionship and advice, sometimes in place of the human relationships that help them thrive.
It is tempting to tackle each challenge separately. An attendance initiative for absenteeism. An academic intervention for achievement. A behavior strategy for discipline. A wellness program for mental health.
But these challenges have something important in common: the quality of students’ relationships and their connection to school.
When students feel known by adults, connected to peers and part of their school community, they are better positioned to participate, engage and learn. That makes relationships more than a school-climate issue. They are part of the conditions for student success.
Look for the Common Denominator
For district leaders, a useful question is: What conditions could help us make progress across several priorities at once?
The research tells me that relationships are one of those conditions.
We know that healthy relationships don’t simply happen because students share a classroom. Students need opportunities to connect, skills to build and maintain relationships, and environments that make those connections possible. When those conditions are in place, the effects can extend well beyond whether a student feels like they belong.
Richard Carranza, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools, has seen that connection at the system level:
“When districts invest in the practices that help adults connect, reflect, and solve problems together, the payoff is real: steadier teams, stronger follow-through, and classrooms where students are more present and ready to succeed.”
Richard Carranza, former Chancellor of New York City Public Schools
What a Decade of Research Has Shown
That is what we have seen in more than a decade of research on Sanford Harmony. As detailed in our new report, Why Harmony Matters in Schools and Communities, randomized controlled trials and other studies have found improvements in peer relationships, prosocial behavior, school connection and academic outcomes, along with reductions in aggression and bullying.
Across studies, the Sanford Harmony approach has been associated with a 6% improvement in both academic achievement and classroom connection, a 10% increase in school enjoyment, and a 34% reduction in aggression and bullying.
And our Buddy Up practice specifically delivered a 67% increase in playing with new classmates and a 54% decrease in aggressive behavior.
The important point for district leaders isn’t any single number. It’s the pattern across the findings.
From Good Classroom Practice to Districtwide Impact
Most districts don’t need to be convinced that relationships matter. The harder question is how to make relationship-building intentional and consistent across classrooms and schools.
As Dr. Ruby Ababio-Fernandez, a former senior leader in New York City Public Schools, has said, building strong school relationships “isn’t just a feeling—it’s something leaders can design for.”
Building strong school relationships “isn’t just a feeling—it’s something leaders can design for.”
Dr. Ruby Ababio-Fernandez, former senior leader in New York City Public Schools
That distinction matters. When relationship-building depends primarily on the instincts and practices of individual educators, students’ experiences can vary considerably from classroom to classroom. A shared approach gives educators common language, strategies and opportunities to build connection while still allowing teachers to respond to the students in front of them.
For superintendents, that also means relationship-building doesn’t have to become one more initiative competing for attention. Done well, it can strengthen work already underway around attendance, engagement, behavior, school climate and academic success.
Sanford Harmony was designed around that idea, giving educators research-based resources to intentionally build relationship skills, peer connections and classroom environments from pre-K through middle school.
Relationships will not solve every challenge facing schools. But when attendance, engagement, behavior and achievement are all on the agenda, the research suggests that strengthening relationships can support progress across them—and offers district leaders a strong place to start.
LEARN MORE
Explore the research and evidence behind this approach in Sanford Harmony’s new report, Why Harmony Matters in Schools and Communities, including findings on student connection, engagement, behavior and academic outcomes.
Nick Yoder, PhD is Associate Vice President of Innovation & Research at Sanford Harmony. A former first-grade teacher and instructional coach, he holds a PhD in Education and Psychology and works with schools to make relationship-building part of everyday learning.
Harmony Begins in the Early Years
By Dr. Deborah Bergeron Deputy Director | Community Engagement Innovation National Head Start Association
Harmony Begins in the Early Years
At the National Head Start Association (NHSA), we know what our youngest learners need for a strong start and a stronger future. Research shows that teaching relationship-centered skills early – birth to age six – yields improved outcomes in behavior and self-regulation. For Head Start students, those skills become the foundation for healthy learning in elementary school and beyond. Children experiencing poverty, homelessness, or foster care placement typically need more support for healthy development, so program teachers and staff must stay intentional about reaching every child where they are.
Bringing Harmony to Our Classrooms
NHSA is fortunate to work with the Harmony curriculum and resources through Sanford Harmony to enhance our early childhood educator training, including the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. Our professional learning prepares teachers to help young children acquire the relationship-focused skills that will serve them for years to come.
Through developmentally appropriate activities, stories, songs, and trust-building routines, children discover how to recognize feelings, show empathy, communicate with others, solve problems, and create positive connections with peers and adults. Sanford Harmony’s practical tools give teachers and families a trusted approach to nurturing belonging, cooperation, and healthy relationships.
Sanford Harmony’s practical tools give teachers and families a trusted approach to nurturing belonging, cooperation, and healthy relationships.
At a time when screens compete for children’s attention, the window for cultivating relationship-focused skills early has never mattered more. Teachers and school leaders have the opportunity to prioritize this development in the classrooms that focus on our earliest learners’ day-to-day experiences. This investment will pave the way for their futures as productive citizens in the communities they will one day shape.
About Dr. B
Dr. Deborah Bergeron, aka “Dr. B,” brings more than 30 years of experience in education and child development to her role as Deputy Director of Community Engagement and Innovation at the National Head Start Association. She previously served as Director of the Office of Head Start and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Office of Early Childhood Development at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she championed policies supporting the nation’s most vulnerable children. A former classroom teacher and school administrator, Dr. Bergeron holds a Ph.D. in Education Policy and Educational Psychology.
New Year, New Harmony Experience
New Year, New Harmony Experience
At Sanford Harmony, we know educators and school leaders are balancing increasingly complex demands while working to create supportive, connected learning environments.
Over the past year, we’ve listened closely to our partners about what helps Harmony come to life — and where additional support can make implementation easier and more effective. We’ve taken that feedback to heart and evolved the Harmony experience for the 2026-2027 school year with the Harmony Digital Platform.
As part of this evolution, all Harmony users will experience an improved digital platform with a refreshed look, easier navigation, and enhanced access to resources. Partners with Harmony Plus also gain access to additional tools designed to strengthen implementation, support educators, and extend learning across communities.
When you return for the 2026–2027 school year, you’ll find a refreshed Harmony digital experience designed to make implementation easier, engage students in new ways, and strengthen connections across all learning environments.
What’s New This Fall
A Simplified Experience for Educators
New tools and improvements make it easier to plan, access resources, and bring Harmony into daily practice.
All educators benefit from:
Streamlined navigation and resource discovery
Enhanced search functionality & chatbot support
New ways to organize and save your favorite resources
Improved curriculum progress tracking
Harmony Plus partners will receive additional features to support implementation, like the new Buddy Up Tool.
The Buddy Up Tool helps educators:
Manage student buddy pairings
Keep a history of activities
Track the quality of connections over time
Flexible rostering options and an easy-to-use pairing tool simplify classroom management, allowing educators to spend less time organizing activities and more time helping students build meaningful relationships.
More Visibility to Support Implementation
Strong implementation requires more than access to resources. The updated Harmony experience provides leaders with greater visibility into how Harmony is being used and where additional support may be needed.
Harmony Plus provides leaders with:
Role-based dashboards for school and district leaders
Usage and engagement insights
Greater visibility into implementation across learning environments
Our new and improved Administrator Dashboard helps leaders better understand engagement patterns and monitor usage across all Harmony surfaces. Especially when paired with guidance from Sanford Harmony Implementation Specialists, these insights help leaders make informed decisions that support educators and strengthen student outcomes.
Expanded Support Beyond the Classroom
Belonging is built across many environments, not just the classroom. Harmony continues to expand opportunities for connection between schools, families, and communities.
Now in Harmony Plus:
Harmony at Home App access for families
Harmony Connect educator community
As of this fall, the Harmony at Home App is included in all school- and district-level Harmony Plus partnerships. Harmony at Home extends relationship-building beyond school by providing families with content, activities, and conversation tools that reinforce the same skills students practice in the classroom.
Designed with Educators, for Educators
This updated Harmony experience represents more than a technology upgrade. It reflects our continued commitment to partnering with educators, leaders, and communities to make relationship-building easier, more consistent, and more impactful.
We’re excited for what’s ahead in the 2026–2027 school year and look forward to continuing to support you as you build stronger connections every day.
Access to specific features will vary based on your Harmony license, including Harmony Plus. All users will benefit from an improved Harmony digital experience. To learn more about Harmony Plus and the new features, reach out to harmony@nu.edu
Welcome Back! Family Strategies for a Strong Start to the New School Year!
Parents and caretakers, there’s no better time than the first weeks of school to build a strong foundation for your child’s personal, social, and academic success.
We’re excited to share our Key Steps for a Successful School Year Toolkit, designed especially for the 2026–2027 school year! It features insights and strategies from experienced educators who are part of our Harmony Educator Advisory Group. These leaders have spent decades positively shaping classrooms and healthy learning across the country.
This toolkit isn’t just another back-to-school checklist. We’re offering practical, research-informed guidance to support your children in meaningful ways. Inside, you’ll find tools and tips to help your child:
Build strong, healthy relationships
Develop a sense of belonging at school
Feel seen, heard, and understood
Strengthen their overall wellness and mental health
Sanford Harmony at National University draws from years of research and educator experience to create resources that prioritize what truly matters: relationships, belonging, and well-being. These foundational factors pave the way for lifelong success in school and beyond.
We hope you use our toolkit – available in both English and Spanish – to help your children thrive both in and outside of the classroom.
Special thanks to our educators who contributed their voices and expertise to our toolkit:
Get ready to spark connection and fun for the whole family! This new, innovative app makes it easy for busy families to support skill-building, strengthen connection, and enjoy quick, meaningful interactions every day. Learn More!
By: Miriam Blanc-Gonnet, Sr. Manager of User Strategy at Sanford Harmony
It’s that time of year again: notebooks, binders, and pencil pouches in vibrant colors and designs line the entryway of store aisles across the country. “Back to school” is upon us. Some of you may even already have your first week or two behind you.
As a former educator, I always felt equal parts excited and anxious in the weeks leading up to the first day of school. I could not wait to meet my students, and I planned all sorts of fun “get to know you” activities for us to do together. At the same time, I also couldn’t stop thinking about how that first day might go. Worries like, “Do I still remember how to teach?” or “When that 8 a.m. bell rings, will I still know what to do?” would race through my mind.
As we approach the beginning of another year, I want to remind you of something: your students are both excited and anxious, too — you are in this together. I encourage you to take this first week of school slowly and use it to foster relationships, develop community, put routines into place, and take care of yourself in the process. And if you’re looking for support for creating the best healthy learning environment, Sanford Harmony has resources to help you do just that.
Building a Community
To make the start of your school year a bit smoother, the Harmony Curriculum includes aBuilding Community Pre-Unit to guide you through your first ten days of school. The lessons within this unit offer simple relationship-building routines and activities designed to help both you and your students settle in and connect with each other.
During the first week, you’ll introduce Meet-Up, starting with simple steps like Greeting and Sharing and Responding.
For example, on Day One, your students might use the “25 Ways to Say Hello” resource to greet each other in creative ways. You could also model “Sharing” by telling a short story about how you felt preparing for the first day — then invite students to share and respond in return. As the week progresses, you’ll introduce the additional components of Meet-Up: Checking-In and Connecting.Another key practice introduced early on is Harmony Goals, where students create both class and personal goals. These help build ownership and shared expectations, contributing to a sense of belonging and collaboration in your learning environment. Goal-setting also becomes a powerful tool for reflection and accountability as the year unfolds.
You’ll also introduce Buddy Up, a practice that encourages students to connect and collaborate with peers through age-appropriate prompts. Harmony’s updated Quick Connection Cards— designed for both classroom and out-of-school time — make this easy. Try one on the first day to help new buddy pairs break the ice:
Remember to Prioritize YOU!
In addition to this focus on developing community and establishing a routine, through the first few weeks (and the entire school year, really), you must prioritize filling your cup. 2019 National University Teacher of the Year and Educator Advisory Group member Tom Whisinnand (aka Mr. Whiz), has some great advice on this:
“Starting another school year can be a stressful time. There are many tasks that need to be accomplished and there is limited time to accomplish them. Starting a year by keeping YOUR personal worth in mind is mega-important!”
“Starting another school year can be a stressful time. There are many tasks that need to be accomplished and there is limited time to accomplish them. Starting a year by keeping YOUR personal worth in mind is mega-important! Teachers MUST look after their own well-being Just as we set up routines in our classrooms that empower students to embrace social, emotional, and academic learning, we MUST start the year by embedding these practices in our personal lives.”
Additionally, Mr. Whiz shares his tips for educator self-care during the upcoming school year.
“During this upcoming year, I will be looking after my own well-being in the following ways: 1) I will be visiting a gym on a regular basis; 2) I will create and maintain professional/personal work boundaries; AND 3) I will engage in a creative activity (painting/writing/drawing/producing YouTubes) at least once during any given weekend.”
Mr. Whiz is spot-on. You need to consider how you will maintain your own mental, emotional, and physical health during what is often a chaotic time.
Want a Little Extra?
Everything you need to implement Harmony is available to you at no cost through our Online Learning Portal — including full access to the Building Community unit, Everyday Practices, and digital storybooks.
We also know that many educators appreciate having ready-to-useand printed materials. That’s why we offer a selection of premium resources, designed to make implementation even easier.
Harmony Classroom Kit:
If you prefer having ready-to-use materials on hand, the Harmony Classroom Kit offers printed resources to support your implementation. It includes over 200 Quick Connection Cards for peer conversations, engaging story books for Pre-K–5th, a plush Z doll to help bring lessons to life, and grade-level literature guides developed to integrate relationship skills into literacy instruction. These tools help make Harmony even more accessible in your classroom.
We can’t wait to share our new app with you this fall! You will soon be able to encourage families to support their child’s development of essential skills, promote well-being, and strengthen relationships at home with the Harmony at Home app — designed to make it easy to extend classroom learning into everyday family life through quick, on-the-go activities. Follow us on social media for the launch date!
You’ve Got This!
Starting a new school year is a big deal — for you and your students. Remember to give yourself grace, celebrate the small wins, and prioritize connection over perfection. The learning will come — what matters most right now is helping your students feel like they belong.
We encourage you to get started exploring our Harmony Curriculum in the Harmony Online Learning Portal, and follow us on social media for more exciting updates this fall.
We hope you have an amazing start to the new school year!
Miriam Blanc-Gonnet, Sr. Manager of User Strategy at Sanford Harmony
Originally published on 08/06/2025, updated on 07/17/2026
