Despite significant progress in research on the treatment and prevention of psychological, behavioral, and health problems, the translation of this knowledge into population-wide benefit remains limited. This paper reviews the state of America's children and families, highlighting the influence of stressful contextual and social conditions on child and family well-being and the concentration of disadvantage in numerous neighborhoods and communities throughout the nation. It then briefly reviews the progress that has been made in pinpointing policies that can reduce stressful contextual conditions such as poverty, discrimination, and the marketing of unhealthful foods and substances. It also describes numerous family and school interventions that have proven benefit in preventing psychological and behavioral problems as diverse as tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use; depression; antisocial behavior; academic failure; obesity prevention; and early childbearing. We argue that progress in translating existing knowledge into widespread benefit will require a nationwide effort to intervene comprehensively in neighborhoods and communities of concentrated disadvantage. We present a strategic plan for how such an effort could be organized. The first step in this organizing would be the creation of a broad and diverse coalition of organizations concerned with advancing public health and well-being. Such a coalition could increase public support both for the policies needed to focus on these disadvantaged areas and the research needed to incrementally improve our ability to help these areas.

Rural schools experience unique challenges, including teacher quality and teacher retention, limited resources, and availability of funding. Furthermore, access to professional development and, subsequently, implementation of evidence-based practices may also be limited in rural settings. One evidence-based framework for implementing evidence-based practices, School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS), has been widely implemented, including in rural and urban schools. Yet, very little research has explicitly compared rural and urban schools implementing SWPBIS with regard to implementation and discipline. Therefore, we examined statewide data to evaluate differences between rural and urban schools implementing SWPBIS in Florida. We found that both rural and urban schools were equally likely to implement all the components of SWPBIS. When comparing schools, we found that rural schools implementing SWPBIS had more out-of-school suspensions than nonimplementing rural schools, while the opposite was true for urban schools. Limitations and future research are discussed.