1: Introduction

The mental health of children and adolescents has become an urgent public health challenge, with schools being increasingly recognized as critical sites for prevention, intervention, and support. Yet schools cannot address these needs alone. Families and communities bring essential cultural knowledge, relational trust, and resources that, when meaningfully engaged, amplify schools’ efforts to foster resilience and well-being among students. This introductory chapter frames the volume Promising Practice for Engaging Families and Communities around Mental Health in Schools within the Family-School-Community Partnership Issues series. It situates the discussion within the context of recent national data on youth mental health, highlighting persistent treatment gaps and systemic barriers that limit access to care. Key themes cutting across the chapters within the volume include prevention and protection through family-school relationships, collaboration during crisis and recovery, innovative practices in building capacity, cultural responsiveness, and leadership for sustainable change. This chapter also provides an overview of the organization of the volume, introducing each of the subsequent contributions and positioning them in relation to current discussions in research and practice within education, mental health, and family engagement. By doing so, it establishes a foundation for understanding the promise and complexity of family-school-community partnerships in advancing student mental health and offers a call to action for educators, leaders, families, and policymakers alike.