Bringing the CIS Model to Our Schools: Why Integrated Student Supports Matter for Greensboro Students

Posted on November 2025 by CIS Greensboro
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At Communities In Schools of Greater Greensboro (CISGG), we believe every student deserves not just a chance — but a full community standing behind them. That’s why we use the nationally recognized CIS Model: Integrated Student Supports (ISS) to bring real, holistic support directly into schools.

What is the CIS Model?

The CIS Model is built on the understanding that many of the obstacles students face are outside the classroom — things like unstable housing, lack of food or clothing, mental health challenges, family stress, or limited access to tutoring and mentoring. Schools alone often don’t have the resources or staffing to meet those needs. That’s where CIS comes in.

Through ISS, a dedicated CIS Site Coordinator works inside each school, serving as a bridge between students, educators, families, and community partners. That simple but powerful connection ensures that “whole child” supports — academic, social, emotional, and practical — are available and easy to access.

How ISS Works: The Four-Step Approach

  1. Discover Needs: Using conversations with teachers, staff, students — and combining that with data on attendance, behavior, grades, and more — Site Coordinators identify the greatest obstacles facing the school and individual students.
  2. Plan Together: Working hand-in-hand with school leaders and staff, they build a custom plan to address academic, emotional, and basic-needs gaps.
  3. Integrate Supports: These aren’t add-on, occasional services — supports are embedded in daily school life. Whether through tutoring, mentoring, counseling, family outreach, supply drives, or community partnerships, the support is real and consistent.
  4. Monitor, Evaluate, Adjust: The Site Coordinator and school team regularly review data and feedback to make sure supports are working — and tweak them when needed for maximum impact.

Tiered Support for Everyone

The CIS model doesn’t take a one-size-fits-all approach. Instead, supports are delivered in three tiers, based on the needs of the school and individual students:

  • Tier I – Schoolwide Services: Supports and programs designed for all students to foster a positive, inclusive school environment.
  • Tier II – Targeted Services: Group-based supports (mentoring groups, social-emotional skills, enrichment clubs, etc.) for students who need extra help beyond what general classes provide.
  • Tier III – Intensive, Individualized Support: One-on-one services for students with specific, often complex challenges — whether academic, behavioral, social, emotional, or basic-needs related.

This tiered structure lets CISGG support entire school communities while still giving extra attention to students who need it most.

Why it Works: Real Impact from Real Support

The data backs up what we see in our schools. Across the national CIS network:

  • 99.5% of students in intensive support stayed in school through the year.
  • High rates of grade promotion and graduation among CIS-supported students.

Improvements in behavior, attendance, engagement, and overall student well-being.

For many students, CIS support goes beyond grades — it offers stability, hope, and a trusted adult who genuinely cares.

What This Means for Greensboro Students

At CISGG, implementing the CIS Model in our local schools means:

  • Students struggling with housing, food, mental health, or family stress have a team working to help meet those needs.
  • Educators can teach without needing to be social workers.
  • Families get connected to community resources and support.
  • Students receive one-on-one mentoring, tutoring, counseling, and access to opportunities they may never find otherwise.
  • Entire school communities become stronger — more inclusive, more supportive, and more equipped to help every child succeed.

We’re All in This Together

It takes more than a classroom to help a child succeed — it takes a community. Through the CIS Model of Integrated Student Supports, CISGG and our partners are working to build a community of support around every student.

But we can’t do it alone. With the help of donors, volunteers, community organizations, and caring adults like you, we can continue bringing these supports to more students, more schools, and more families — ensuring that every child in Greensboro has the opportunity to stay in school and achieve in life.

For more information or to learn more about please go to www.cisgg.org. To donate, please click on the link: Donate!

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About Us
At Communities In Schools (CIS), we believe that every student, regardless of race, gender, ability, zip code, or socioeconomic background has what they need to realize their full potential in school and beyond. We walk by their side, in their communities, to challenge the systems and barriers that stand between them and their success in life.