Strong, caring relationships with adult and peer mentors have long played a crucial role in helping young people thrive academically and overcome challenges they face while at school and at key points in their educational journey. These mentoring relationships for students can be provided at school through volunteer programs embedded in the school day or through afterschool programming, as well as through community-based organizations that operate mentoring services outside of schools. The nation's young people keenly need the support of all of these mentors, especially in light of the disruption of the COVID-19 pandemic on the educational engagement and progress of the nation's students. While many districts and schools have long struggled to raise academic achievement metrics and graduation rates, the multi-year pandemic has greatly impacted every student in America, with the impact hitting hardest on low-income students, students of color, students with learning disabilities, and young people facing adversities and experiencing marginalization. This report highlights the positive impact that mentoring relationships -- both those that occur in programmatic contexts in and out of schools and those that form naturally in communities -- can make in supporting the academic achievement of the nation's students.