The Foundation's funding is awarded to a partnership that consisted of representatives of a Chicago public elementary school and a nonprofit organization. The nonprofit organization in each partnership serves as the fiscal agent and employs the Resource Coordinator. All major decisions regarding programming, funding, and staffing are made by an Oversight Committee that includes the school's principal, teachers, parents, staff of the nonprofit partner and other nonprofit organizations. Each partnership hires a full-time Resource Coordinator. Training and technical assistance are extended to each partnership by an outside entity.
Evaluation is provided by an outside entity.
Together, the technical assistance team and evaluator help each partnership identify a set of desired outcomes and determine how and by whom progress will be measured. The school's principal is charged with ensuring that members of the Oversight Committee, the school's Local School Council, parents, teachers, and other school personnel share a common vision for improving student achievement by bringing programming desired by families into the school and by strengthening the relationship between parents and teachers. Each principal is an active member of the Oversight Committee and regularly communicates the importance of becoming a Full Service School with parents, teachers, students, and members of the community. A liaison of the nonprofit partner brings a social service perspective and sensitivity to the school. The evaluator, Dr. Samuel P. Whalen of the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago, met with the partnerships individually each fall to discuss the progress they were making toward meeting the FSSI's objectives and provided written feedback to each partnership at that time.