Creating a coordinated school health learning community: Identifying opportunities for public health departments, schools and community organizations to work together to advance healthy and resilient youth

School and public health agency goals are strongly intertwined. Health factors and behaviors influence school attendance and achievement. Likewise, poor attendance and dropping out of school are associated poor health outcomes, including violence, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, and poor physical and mental health.

To advance a holistic vision of healthy and resilient youth, the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Office of Education collaborated in 2015 to launch a coordinated school health learning community. The learning community provides opportunities for school districts and community partners to receive technical assistance and support from experts and peers on models to improve the integration of physical and mental health promotion on school campuses and in the surrounding community. Strategies include the development and refinement of comprehensive school wellness plans, district policies (e.g., food procurement, shared-use, tobacco cessation), health education messages, and targeted interventions (e.g., creating clinical and community linkages). The learning community has an explicit focus on advancing both health (e.g., obesity, tobacco use, asthma) and academic (e.g., school climate, absenteeism) goals and tracking data over time to inform strategy development and implementation.

This presentation will describe the process undertaken to develop the learning community and the lessons learned in bridging school and health sectors. We will describe use of data dashboards and targeted evaluations, including assessments of school wellness policies, public health surveillance and school-level administrative data (e.g., school procurement records, attendance data) along with continuous quality improvement strategies to optimize opportunities for advancing these types of integrated models.