California's schools are facing increasing complexity when it comes to educating their student populations: the next generation of children is more diverse, more likely to live in low-income families, and are majority dual language learners. Research shows that providing supportive, enriching environments for children to connect with caring adults in the first years of life helps ensure the fundamental architecture of the brain is formed in healthy ways that impact a child throughout their life. Additionally, emerging research is showing that parents also experience significant brain growth from the act of caregiving; ensuring positive relationships between the child and parent enables them to better support their child, even under difficult circumstances, helping them both to build resilience to better navigate future challenges. The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) allows school districts the flexibility to use resources to augment early childhood investments in service of improving outcomes for LCFF priority populations. Innovative leaders have further leveraged their investments by forming partnerships with local county agencies and community organizations that already offer services that benefit the school district's community of young children and families. These partnerships help bridge the gap between California families who have access to high-quality resources and opportunities for their children from the very start,and those who don't. Bridging this gap is essential to eliminating the well-documented structural barriers that, without intervention, mean children in LCFF priority populations are behind--before they enter school. This brief spotlights school districts that have developed such partnerships and leveraged resources in their neighborhoods to better support young children and their families so they have every opportunity to thrive. [Partnership and funding from FIRST 5 Santa Clara.]