Expansion of School-Based Health Services in California: An Opportunity for More Trauma-Informed Care for Children

Expansion of School-Based Health Services in California: An Opportunity for More Trauma-Informed Care for Children, is a paper that describes a new opportunity for California to leverage federal funding to provide physical, mental, and behavioral health services in schools to Medicaid-enrolled students experiencing trauma and violence. It explains a newly approved Medicaid State Plan Amendment (SPA) that allows school districts – known as local education agencies (LEAs) – to access more federal funding for school-based health services. The SPA expands the ability of LEAs to seek federal reimbursement for school-based health services in three important ways: (1) all Medicaid-enrolled children are now covered; (2) more types of services are now covered; and (3) more types of providers are now covered. This paper also provides recommendations for partners on ways to advocate for increased trauma-informed care and services in schools and it lifts up the role of Medicaid as an important source of financing for these services. Trauma-informed care is one strategy to help advance education and health equity and ensure that children and families recover from trauma caused by violence and pervasive bias. Futures Without Violence worked in partnership with the Healthy Schools Campaign to develop this paper. 

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