As the focus on school improvement at a state education agency moves from mostly a compliance approach to playing a greater role in capacity building, the agency's leadership needs to rethink student and learning supports. That is the focus of this report. Given that almost half of the chief state school officers have assumed their position in the last three years, major changes are underway across the country. The authors hope the content of this report can help focus agency leadership on the importance of fashioning systemic changes that recognize the primary and essential role a "system" of learning supports can play in school improvement policy and practice. They begin with a look at how state education agencies currently conceive and organize efforts to guide and support district and school approaches to addressing external as well as internal barriers to learning. Specifically, they highlight what they have garnered from each State Education Agency's (SEA) website about its: (1) Policy priority related to addressing barriers to learning; (2) Intervention framework for conceptualizing a comprehensive and cohesive system for schools to address barriers to learning; and (3) Operational infrastructure for transforming student and learning supports into a coherent, integrated system of intervention for addressing barriers to learning and teaching. In addition, they look at how the need to develop a comprehensive and cohesive system for addressing barriers to learning at schools is or is not dealt with in school improvement guidance. Then, they explore recommendations for state education agencies to expand school improvement policy, frame intervention, and rework operational infrastructure. They conclude by delineating specific implications for revising school improvement guidance. (Contains 11 exhibits and lists 11 resources.)