Teachers from across the country come to Dallas to talk about students' success

The nonprofit, Communities in Schools, has brought 400 teachers and education leaders to Dallas this week for a conference on students' success. Communities in Schools works directly with districts to identify kids who may need help with academics, attendance or behavior.

"We give them trained individuals who operate on their campuses every day," says Dallas Region Chief Executive Adam Powell. "Our full-time staff is there every day working with students really putting together individualized plans to help them overcome whatever barrier they might be facing."

Powell says challenges surrounding education are "multifaceted," so the approach to each student is different.

"A critical component of student development in general is being able to be self-aware, understand the challenges they have and really having the skill set to be able to navigate challenges," he says.

Powell says this year's conference focused on ways to address an increase in mental health challenges among kids and increase parents' engagement. He says helping kids build social skills and work together to solve problems will help them long-term.

"We call them soft skills, the ability to function within a team, get along with others, the ability to be emotionally intelligent," he says. "We focus so much on chemistry, math, history and all these things that are obviously important, but sometimes we overlook some of those soft skills."

Communities in Schools says it works with more than 10,000 students in Dallas. Across the country, the nonprofit says it worked with two million students.

In Texas, Communities in Schools says 76% of students it worked with improved attendance, 86% improved behavior and 90% improved their grades.

The organization says teachers were attending the conference from 25 states and Washington D.C. Powell says the conference aimed to give them a chance to collaborate, compare and improve ideas they have been using and take those ideas back to their classrooms.