Schools play a vital role in keeping children safe, supported, and connected to caring adults. With the passage of AB 2085 and the shift from mandated reporting to community supporting, educators, school leaders, and community partners have new opportunities to reimagine mandated reporting as part of a broader framework of mandated supporting.

This presentation introduces participants to the principles of mandated supporting, shares tools and training resources available to schools, and highlights early learnings from districts and charters that are piloting this approach. We will explore how strengthening home-to-school connections can prevent crises, reduce disproportionality in child welfare system involvement and foster equity-centered practices. Participants will walk away with practical strategies to practice and implement mandated supporting through stronger systems of care and collaboration that keep children safe while honoring family and community strengths and assets.

About the presenter:
Alicia Garoupa (pronouns: she/her) serves as Los Angeles County Office of Education’s (LACOE) first Chief of Wellbeing and Support Services, where she oversees programs and services within LACOE’s divisions of Equity, Diversity & Inclusion, Student Support Services, the Employee Assistance Service for Education, and the Community Schools Initiative. She is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who has served children, youth, families, schools and communities across Los Angeles for over 25 years. She began her career as a Children’s Social Worker with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. Her service in public schools began in south Los Angeles as a Pupil Services and Attendance Counselor with the Los Angeles Unified School District in 2001. Prior to joining LACOE in 2022, she was the Administrator of LAUSD’s Division of Student Health and Human Services. Her achievements include the development and implementation of numerous impactful student-focused and data-informed child welfare and attendance and specialized support service programs. She champions an educational model that nurtures and affirms the whole child, embraces all families as true, equal partners, centers social and racial justice, and ultimately, delivers on the promise of public education through systemic, equity-centered approaches.

She currently serves as a tri-chair for California’s Mandated Reporting Advisory Committee (MRAC), which was created by the California Child Welfare Council to implement and oversee the recommendations of the Mandated Reporting to Community Supporting Task Force. She earned her Master of Social Welfare degree from the University of California at Los Angeles and Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from California State University, Fresno.