Milestone Moment: CIS-AH Now Serves 115 Schools Across the Appalachian Highlands

When Communities In Schools® of Appalachian Highlands (CIS-AH) opened its doors in 2012, it served just two schools in Bristol, Virginia. Today, it proudly stands beside more than 115 schools across 17 districts in Tennessee and Southwest Virginia. 

What started as one of the smaller affiliates in the CIS Network has grown into what may now be one of the largest — a transformation powered not by top-down mandates, but by results that spoke for themselves. Word spread naturally. Superintendents who had seen CIS work in one district requested it when they moved to the next. That kind of endorsement doesn't come from a brochure—it comes from trust built one student at a time.

Strategic investment helped accelerate that growth. Funding through the Ballmer Group's Scaling for Success initiative allowed CIS-AH to move from sharing site coordinators between schools to a dedicated coordinator at every school. Today, 120 site coordinators show up every day—not just to check boxes, but to truly show up for kids.

Showing Up, Together

To celebrate the 115-school milestone, CIS-AH marked February with something fitting: concurrent attendance awareness pop-up events held simultaneously across all 115 schools. The message was simple and powerful—when we show up for students, students show up for school.

Attendance may sound like an outdated metric, but for Communities In Schools of Appalachian Highlands, it’s an essential one. Getting a student through the door means overcoming real barriers: a lack of transportation, unmet basic needs, or simply feeling like no one notices whether they're there. Site coordinators bridge those gaps — driving students to dental appointments, DMV visits, and yes, sometimes to the movies as a hard-earned reward.

The Small Moments That Matter Most

The work doesn't always make headlines. Sometimes it looks like a site coordinator helping a young student pick out new sneakers for his growing feet—and then sitting down to teach him how to tie them. It's a small moment, but it's the kind that stays with a child. A core memory. A milestone. Proof that someone cared.

By providing consistent and caring support, our student support coordinators are improving student attendance, creating a positive school climate, building family relationships, providing basic needs, and so much more.

-Chase Stewart, President and CEO, CIS of Appalachian Highlands

Looking Ahead

CIS-AH isn't done growing. The organization is actively pursuing grant opportunities to expand into new counties and plans to add marketing staff to continue building awareness across the region.

"We are proud to celebrate this milestone alongside our school division partners, our community supporters, and our dedicated team members," Stewart said.

From two schools to 115. From a few students to more than 40,000. The numbers are remarkable—but behind every one of them is a kid who had someone in their corner.
 

Learn more about CIS of Appalachian Highlands.

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