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Low-income children and adolescents continue to bear a heavy burden of untreated pain and complications from dental disease. To explore why proposals to remediate this problem have not gained traction, the authors interviewed experts involved in efforts to improve the oral health status of low-income and minority children during the past decade. Key informants believe that success requires addressing both consumer demand and provider supply factors. They especially cite the lack of public outcry for more accessible oral health care and the undervaluing of oral health, relative to medical care. Informants were cautiously optimistic that strategies such as health literacy and outreach campaigns, which have helped increase children's physical activity and improve their diets, offer unexplored opportunities for progress.

School-based health services have made limited contributions to the well-being of school-age children. However, they have the potential for promoting health and improving service delivery for 50 million children and adolescents enrolled in the nation's schools. Recent changes in health care, particularly the spread of managed care and development of integrated health service networks, have reawakened mainstream interest in school health and created the possibility for strengthening its efficiency and effectiveness. Two promising strategies for enabling school health programs to fulfill their potential are being implemented by the Massachusetts state government and by an Austin, Texas, hospital system. These strategies suggest measures to create either closely linked school and community health systems or fully integrated school/community child health systems that may have widespread benefit for children and their families. Barriers to fully implementing these strategies and replicating them in other communities will include the challenge of securing adequate funding, disagreements regarding the appropriate content of a school health program, and opposition to new staffing and employment arrangements from professional and union organizations. Whether this moment of opportunity yields gains for child health and school health will, for the most part, depend on forces outside school health. Success will be particularly dependent on the degree to which the managed care plans or large health care organizations see value in building more comprehensive child health systems or identify financial benefits from linking more closely with school-based services.

The survey of state representatives revealed a substantial expansion in the number of school-based health centers and a significant increase in state funding for the centers in the 18 months since the initial survey of states. Although the degree of involvement varies state governments have fast become leading players in the development of school-based health centers. With older state initiatives in school-based health centers expanding and additional states piloting new efforts state governments have undertaken the development of service standards staffing guidelines long-term financing strategies and quality assurance guidelines. In addition states have begun to invest in the development of state level offices to provide technical assistance to operating centers as well as support communities in conducting needs assessments and other planning activities. With the emerging role of the states governors legislators and state agency officials have also emerged as key decision makers in program policy formation and development. (excerpt)

There is growing recognition that health and health care at school can significantly impact children's health. From childhood obesity interventions to new immunization mandates, schools are at the forefront of child health discussions. The 2008 presidential campaign and the renewed focus on health-care reform raise the possibility that in 2009 school health will play a larger role in health policy conversations than previously. This article explores the proposition that both school health and national health policy will benefit from closer attention to the role of school health within the U.S. health system. It offers a Maryland case study to suggest both the opportunities and operational challenges of linking school health to the larger community health system.

A vast array of child health professionals—99,000 counselors; 56,000 nurses; 30,000 school psychologists; 15,000 social workers; and smaller numbers of dental hygienists, dentists, physicians, and substance abuse counselors—provide care to children and adolescents at school. However, most thought leaders in child health know little about this “hidden” system of care or are skeptical about its capacity to contribute to children’s well-being. Increased interest in prevention and chronic disease management, powered by escalating concern about childhood overweight, might end the isolation of school health programs and link them more effectively to community-based prevention programs and health care services.

Health services provided at schools represent an opportunity not only to safeguard the health of students in general but also to promote environmental health. This chapter begins with an overview of school health services, describing the people, the facilities, and the clinical services. It then turns to aspects of school health services relevant to safe and healthy environments.

In June 1998, the Making the Grade National Program Office and the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care sponsored a workshop on the relationship between the State Child Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and school-based health centers. Workshop participants used the health centers' experience with Medicaid managed care as a window for understanding their prospects for negotiating contracts with health plans under SCHIP. Speakers representing the federal perspective, state agencies, health plans, and local school-based health centers offered their views on the challenges of developing contracts, incentives, and disincentives that health plans have to contract with school-based health centers, and what has accounted for success where relationships are moving forward. Experiences in Colorado and Connecticut were presented as case studies on these evolving issues.

Objectives To document recent growth among school-based health centers across the United States and identify state policies that may be facilitating that growth, using a nationwide survey. This was the fourth in a series of surveys undertaken by the Making the Grade office, Washington, DC. Design During the period from July to September 1998, a written survey instrument was sent to 50 state governments plus the District of Columbia requesting data on numbers of school-based health centers as well as their basic characteristics and a description of state funding and other policies as they relate to the centers. Follow-up telephone calls and additional mailings secured a 100% completion rate. Main Outcome Measures The numbers of centers by state and region, basic health center characteristics, levels of state financial support, and numbers of states implementing specific policies to sustain and replicate the centers. Results School-based health centers increased from 900 during school year 1995-1996 to 1157 in 1997-1998, a 29% gain. Mid-Atlantic and New England states continue to lead the regions with 37% of the total. The fastest growth occurred in the Midwest and the Southwestern/Rocky Mountain states. State grant funding of centers decreased slightly during this period. Other policies, including support from Medicaid and the State Child Health Insurance Program, are increasing third-party revenues. Conclusions The spread of school-based health centers into the Southwest and Rocky Mountain states is increasing the importance of the centers to rural communities. Because these areas are generally more conservative than either coast, these developments suggest a continued migration of school-based health centers from the political margins into the mainstream. The growth of the centers during a period of stagnation in state grant funding may also suggest that other sources of support, including third-party payments and support from private institutions, are becoming more significant.