Reports & Policy Briefs Archive

Developed by AASA, FutureEd, Healthy Schools Campaign and Kaiser Permanente, this guidance offers concrete steps school districts can take to make data-informed decisions about investing COVID-relief funding to support student and staff health, including COVID-prevention, mental and physical health and well-being, social drivers of health, physical and health education, and family engagement and community involvement.

This issue brief examines the challenges schools have encountered while providing physical, behavioral and mental health services during the Covid-19 pandemic. It considers the impact of state and federal policies, including how state Medicaid programs are responding to ensure reimbursement and funding, and it documents emerging best practices and guidance, especially around telemedicine and parental consent.

The extensive recommendations for state and federal agencies are designed to support the continuous delivery of school-based health services during this time of partial school reopenings and in the case of future health crises and natural disasters.

Key opportunities exist for education, healthcare and public health sectors to improve both health and education outcomes by focusing on school-based health services. This brief addresses the opportunity in Illinois to expand on Medicaid-funded health services delivered within a school by school nurses and other district-employed providers.

In April 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services approved California’s Medicaid state plan amendment, allowing school districts to access more federal funding for school-based health services. This report describes using this opportunity to increase access to services that help students heal from trauma — including the trauma caused by exposure to domestic violence and pervasive bias and crises such as COVID-19.

Healthy Schools Campaign and Trust for America’s Health are monitoring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students and schools and highlighting guidance from our federal and national partners on how to support access to behavioral and physical health services.

This comprehensive guide provides background on school-based Medicaid and outlines various opportunities to advance state policy changes required to access federal funds. It is designed for anyone working to expand access to school health services, including state and local education agency staff, state Medicaid agencies, school health providers, public health professionals and children’s health advocates.

Key opportunities exist for education, healthcare and public health sectors to improve both health and education outcomes by focusing on school-based health services. This national policy brief primarily addresses the opportunities to expand on health services delivered within a school by school nurses and other district-employed providers (school psychologists, social workers, counselors, occupational therapists, physical therapists and speech-language pathologists), using the "free care" policy clarification issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

This activity brief, maintained by Healthy Schools Campaign and Community Catalyst, outlines state actions to implement the reversal of the free care policy. Some of the information in this brief is based on informal conversations with policymakers and advocates. This document is updated as changes are known to the HSPF team.

This guide highlights the ways that school needs assessments required by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) can be a valuable tool in identifying, understanding and addressing health conditions that contribute to poor academic performance. It provides child advocates, community leaders, school personnel and other key stakeholder groups with the information that they need to convince their state and local education leaders to make health and wellness a significant component of the needs assessment and school improvement process.

This brief for school superintendents provides an overview of how school districts can leverage Medicaid to support children's educational and health outcomes.

This brief provides an overview of the Massachusetts Medicaid state plan amendment (SPA) approved in 2017 by CMS that enables schools to bill for Medicaid services provided to all Medicaid-enrolled students.

This resource is meant to help those who are particularly interested in leveraging ESSA to support efforts to address chronic absenteeism.