Students learn better when they are able to consistently attend classes, but too many students are missing school due to health–related factors. Some are at doctors or dentist appointments or home sick. Some are home sick because they have no access to health care and spend time out of school as a result. One of the best ways to ensure that students are getting the medical care they need to stay in class and grow up healthy is to bring the "doctor’s office" into the school. Begun in 2004, the School-Based Health Care Policy Program is a five-year program working toward a critical vision:
The Kellogg Foundation has awarded grants to the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) and nine of its state affiliates. Working with numerous local school-based health centers, state affiliates or grantees are implementing a broad array of strategies to increase the sustainability of school-based health centers, including grassroots advocacy, community organizing, technical assistance, and data collection. Over the five years, the grantees will also build their visibilty and capacity to represent and advocate for school-based health care centers in their states.
In addition to providing affiliates with direct assistance, NASBHC will coordinate national communications efforts and build widespread support for policies, programs, reasearch, and funding that will advance school-based health care centers throughout the country.
Program History
The school-based health care movement started in the early 1980s with a handful of projects. Today, more than 1,500 school-based health centers serve nearly two million young people across the U.S. every year. Approximately 40% of these students have no other medical home, largely because they live in communities with limited access to health care for youth.
Despite the obvious need for school-based health care centers, they constantly struggle to secure reliable funding and survive through an unstable mix of state general funds, tobacco taxes, federal funds, third-party billing, and special grants.
