(Connecticut) East Hartford High School in Hartford, Connecticut, operates a Student Assistance Center as one of the school's many prevention efforts. The Center offers peer mediation, cultural enrichment programs, career development programs, alcohol and drug counseling, police outreach, and facilities for probation officers to meet with students under their charge. A student assistance team, made up of 30 faculty members who volunteer during their free periods, helps the school's counselors meet with students and refer those with serious needs so that they don't get lost in the system. Principal Steven Edwards spends the two-hour lunch period every day with students and regularly walks the hallways to build a sense of community. Dr. Edwards credits the Student Assistance Center and East Hartford's other prevention efforts with achieving a 50 percent reduction in school suspensions and a 100 percent reduction in school expulsions since 1992.

(Texas) Cesar Chavez Academy, an alternative school in El Paso, Texas, involves all 187 students in service-learning activities. Students volunteer at a daycare center, help at a center for people seeking asylum in the U.S., and tutor local elementary students. They keep journals and regularly reflect on their experiences in the classroom. For the students, many of whom are referred to the school from the juvenile justice system, the service-learning program offers positive alternative experiences and helps them build important connections to both the school and the community.