By Deborah Temkin, Kaiser Permanente Institute for Health Policy, July 14, 2020
In response to growing concerns about children’s mental and physical health, state policymakers have enacted laws to require schools to take an active role in supporting their students’ wellbeing – from requiring a minimum amount of time dedicated to physical activity, to requiring access to clean, potable water, to providing access to mental and physical health services, to implementing a range of preventative dental, vision, and health screenings. As schools reopen this fall to the new realities of the COVID-19 pandemic, with many shifting to virtual learning for at least part of the school week, they will be challenged to implement many of these requirements. Schools, and the communities they serve, must find new ways to support students’ social, emotional, and physical health needs, which are typically addressed within the school building.
Schools play a critical role in ensuring access to mental and physical health services. This is particularly true for low-income students and students of color who may face systemic barriers that make it difficult to access critical health resources and services. In one study, students in Boston Public Schools were nearly eight times more likely to see a school nurse than a pediatric care provider. In another study, nearly 80 percent of children receiving mental health services did so at school. It is no surprise, then, that state policymakers have leveraged schools to help address child health crises, including the childhood obesity epidemic and rising rates of child and teen suicides.
In 2019, my organization, Child Trends, with our partners from the National Association of State Boards of Education (NASBE), the Institute for Health Policy Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and EMT Associates, Inc., documented the broad landscape of laws addressing student wellbeing in schools. We found that every state requires schools to attend to student health in at least some way when considering each of the ten elements of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child framework (see image below). These laws, however, presume that schools operate in a typical manner – with students in school buildings without pandemic-related restrictions. Yet, we know this will not be the reality for many schools starting in fall 2020.
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