Caring State Leadership: Exploring How State Policy Shapes Conditions for Care at the Local Level

• In Event: Caring Leadership Amidst the Chaos: Elevating Care as Resistance, Intervention, and Imperative

Abstract

Prior research has examined the role of the state education agency in building capacity for school improvement (Torres, 2024; VanGronigen & Meyers, 2019) and found wide variation in how states promote evidence use (e.g., Woo et al., 2025; Yoshizawa, 2023). Scholars have highlighted how political culture influences state actions and response to federal initiatives (Louis et al., 2008), sometimes to the detriment of local autonomy (Mette et al., 2023).

How the state provides caring leadership is an open empirical question. Care literature points to the importance of a politicized and culturally relevant care orientation (Antrop-Gonzalez & De Jesus, 2006; Jackson et al., 2014; Author, 2020), the relationality of caring (Louis et al., 2016), and indicates that “webs of caring” include community partnerships (Smylie et al., 2016). Systems level caring leadership involves a complex, enacted, and embodied leadership approach that is responsive to the needs of the local school community (Authors, 2022). Literature on caring organizations suggest that the role of, say, SEAs might be to create the conditions for care at the local level, since state leaders are not in direct caring relationships with students and teachers (Noddings, 2015).

In this conceptual paper, we take up the idea of caring leadership at the state level to ask: How, and to what extent, might caring leadership and state-level care initiatives shape conditions for care at the local level? We examine this question conceptually by bringing in evidence from three states: Puerto Rico, Washington, and Illinois. Using case study qualitative data (interviews, observations, and document analysis) collected between 2020 and 2025, we share insights and findings on how caring state leadership is shaping care conditions in local schools.

In brief, we find that Puerto Rico used federal emergency relief funds to invest heavily in care in all 860 schools. State leaders hired school nurses, social workers, and counselors in Puerto Rican schools, greatly increasing the caring structural supports available in local schools. Data shows that local educators highly value these supports as the island heals from hurricanes and storms, in addition to COVID-19. In Washington state, the state legislature enacted sweeping Social and Emotional Learning standards in schools, as well as policies designed to significantly reduce exclusionary discipline. Leaders described value in the policies and excitement about the potential to support students, but also worried about navigating local political resistance. In Illinois, an interdisciplinary group funded by ESSER dollars worked with the Lieutenant Governor to develop a statewide transformation plan for care and healing. The collaboration built on existing SEA efforts and produced an expansive framework entering equity, community voice, and strengths-based systems change. Operationalizing the framework proved challenging, however, as institutionalized state practices were often at odds with stated goals.

Our conceptual exploration of caring state leadership points to key mechanisms that shape care conditions on the ground, extending previous notions of “webs of caring” (Smylie et al., 2016) to include state leaders, as well as furthering our understanding of multileveled caring in communities (Authors, 2021).

Authors

• Kate Kennedy, University of Cincinnati

• Lara Altman, Northwestern University

• Jeff Walls, University of Iowa