Children who grow up in poverty suffer health-related issues – like increased exposure lead and other toxins and unhealthy air – that can affect their academic performance. Lack of regular access to doctors make them more often and persistently sick, and stresses associated with living in poverty threaten their mental and emotional well-being. They thus need extra support to help them come to class focused and avoid excessive absences that grow achievement gaps.
While the number of school-based health clinics has gradually increased, they still provide only a small minority of students remedial and preventive care. Few states and districts have policies to help them scale up and become sustainable, let alone provide the true medical homes needed to keep kids healthy and ready to learn, and strong school wellness practices are rare.
These BBA blog posts offer a range of perspectives on the importance of attending to children’s mental and physical well-being in order to boost learning: In Crunching Test Scores Isn’t Enough, veteran DCPS high school …
BBA case studies illustrate how supports for children’s physical, mental, and dental health care be incorporated into the school day and system and resulting benefits.
The Center for Disease Control has a Healthy Schools Website, which provides data, multimedia, tools, training, and a variety of other CDC resources to advance whole-child education.
The School-Based Health Alliance, in partnership with its state affiliates and experts from the school-based health care field, developed this set of seven core competencies that encompass the common characteristics of great school-based health …
The Healthy Schools Campaign models a strategic, clear and comprehensive approach to helping schools provide students with healthy environments, nutritious food, opportunities for physical activity and experiences that support lifelong healthy habits. In Chicago, …
A leading state in the use of school-based health centers, (see map on nationwide SBHCs) California has been the focus of recent studies, as summarized in these facts sheets: need and impact in serving …
Children who grow up in poverty suffer health-related issues that can affect their academic performance. They are more likely to live in housing and neighborhoods that expose them to allergens, lead and other toxins, and unhealthy air. Inconsistent preventive and regular doctors’ visits make them more often and persistently sick. Further, the stresses associated with living in poverty threaten children’s mental and emotional well-being. As a result, poor children come to class less focused and prepared and are disproportionately chronically absent, which further widens achievement gaps. While there has been a gradual increase in the number of school-based health clinics, which provide preventive and remedial care and even crisis interventions, clinics serve only a small minority of students, and few states and districts have policies in place to help them scale up and become sustainable.
Policy solution: A Broader, Bolder Approach establishes a strong foundation for all children’s physical and mental health and incorporates wellness into education standards and practice. This requires not only that we expand the presence of health clinics in schools serving high-risk student populations, but enact policies to support those programs. More broadly, it means that all students have a medical home, and that the public education system is structured to actively nurture children’s well-being. The system should thus work closely with health providers and other agencies to provide remedial care and crisis intervention as needed. However, such services would be the exception, rather than the norm, and strategies to avert crises should be built in for all students and schools.
Strategies and systems must support not only physical, but students’ mental health as well. The Center for Academic, Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has long been a leader in advancing Social and Emotional Learning in public …
State-level strategies have been successful in addressing early chronic absence. Mapping the Early Attendance Gap: Charting a Course for Student Success, a joint report by Attendance Works and the Healthy Schools Campaign, explains key factors …
Poor health is a key driver of chronic absence, which limits at-risk students’ achievement. This 2015 National Collaborative on Education and Health Chronic Absenteeism Working Group Report summarizes the physical, mental, and other health issues …
Establishing an even educational playing field so that all children enter kindergarten prepared to learn and thrive requires supports for children, their parents, and their caregivers from birth. And ensuring equal opportunities to learn requires support for children’s physical and mental health. A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education advances enriching experiences with nurturing, knowledgeable adults throughout the day and all year, in order to promote children’s strong cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral development.
Schools and educators serving students with higher needs need the resources to do so effectively. A Broader, Bolder Approach to Education advances policies that establish strong standards and curriculum in all schools and ensure sufficient funding for high-needs schools to reach them. BBA promotes supports-based accountability systems focused on improving instruction and strategies to desegregate schools and deconcentrate poverty within them, so that educators and students have a strong context in which to teach and learn.
Effective, sustainable school improvement efforts merge research-based evidence of effective ways to mitigate the impacts of poverty with community input regarding the district’s unique assets and needs. A Broader, Bolder Approach highlights the need for key community voices – including educators, parents, students, and faith and business leaders – to be at the center of developing and implementing education reforms.