If we could peer inside the mind of a student in Houston ISD, we’d be almost as likely to find thoughts of hunger or homelessness as we would recess and homework.

Many children in the high-poverty district struggle every day with incarcerated or deported parents, with family violence and drug addicted caregivers, with trying to get to school in the morning and not knowing where they will lay their heads at night.

A teacher’s words can hardly compete with concerns of basic survival.

That’s why the district has launched an ambitious effort to place wraparound resource specialists — staff dedicated to students’ well-being beyond the classroom — in all its 280 campuses by 2022.

“It’s naive to think we can address education without addressing some of those factors,” Rick Cruz, HISD Chief Innovation Officer, told the Editorial Board. “The fact that the district realized that and is putting resources behind it, and has a comprehensive strategy and vision for tackling that type of work, is really exciting.”

We agree. Houston ISD should be recognized for its effort, even as it addresses some initial stumbles and questions about the program.

Cruz took over responsibility for the initiative earlier this year after the district replaced the previous administrator and slowed the program’s expansion. Problems included inconsistent implementation, high turnover among resource specialists and uneven buy-in from campus administration.

Under new leadership, the plan this year is to add an extra specialist to large campuses, institute more accountability measures, train campus leaders on the program and hire a full-time researcher to track outcome data. Despite the shaky start, the initiative is on track to meet its five-year timeline. Once fully implemented, the district will have 300 staffers helping students at a cost of $15 million per year.

While that amount is almost insignificant in a budget that nearly tops $3 billion, some have raised questions over spending millions to develop a program that sounds a lot like well-established ones, such as Communities in Schools, a nonprofit that has been working in HISD for 40 years.

Like the district’s resource staff, CIS support specialists assess a student’s needs and provide direct services or connect that student with community aid organizations. The group is currently in more than 60 HISD schools, as well as in other districts, including Alief, Fort Bend and Spring Branch. It also offers services at several Lone Star community college campuses.

Is HISD wasting resources to try to reinvent the wheel? No, officials said. The efforts are intended to be complementary.

“It speaks to the great need that exists, the need we have been responding to for years,” CIS CEO Lisa Descant told us. “We work really hard to coordinate services, ensuring we are not duplicating and we’re not competing; that we are leveraging all resources to the best support of students.”

Cruz echoed Descant, saying that even though the district is doing more than it’s ever done to provide wraparound services, they are just scratching the surface.

“If you’re really serious about tackling these issues, it would be foolish to think that one person at a campus or two people at a campus is going to fully engage this,” he said.

Based on its actions so far, Houston ISD seems committed to making the wraparound program work. Its intent to rely on data to evaluate and adjust its strategy, as well as its desire to work with outside partners bodes well for its success.

HISD students deserve no less.