Datasharing to inform school-based asthma services

School-based interventions that offer a spectrum of services, including identifying students with asthma, supervising medication, case management, and education on disease management, can play a vital role in ensuring that students with asthma have the same educational opportunities as their peers and lead to improved academic performance. However, efforts to evaluate the outcomes of school-based programs face many challenges, including the difficult task of collecting and managing data. With an emphasis on effective strategies for conducting empirically sound outcome evaluation of school health interventions, this paper will examine lessons learned from a collaborative project involving a large urban school district, its county health department, and multiple community partners to establish an effective system for datasharing to inform evaluation of the Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) Asthma Education Program (AEP). Results demonstrated a number of positive findings, including evidence that, consistent with program objectives, students with elevated levels of need received priority from AEP. Findings from analyses of changes across time in students' grade-point averages and absences, as well as their implications, will be discussed. Importantly, separate analyses for those students with a baseline GPA below 2.5 demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in grades. Additional analyses for those students who received case management services demonstrated further program benefits in the areas of attendance, academic performance, behavior, and quality of life. Specific recommendations for obtaining and using high quality data, integrating data across multiple resources, and leveraging existing data resources will be presented.