School Health

Online Reporting System

School Health fosters the growth, development and educational achievement of Missouri's students by:

• Promoting their health and well being.
• Monitoring health status in order to identify and address the unmet needs of students, families and school personnel.
• Building public and private partnerships to ensure quality services that are effective, culturally appropriate, and responsive to the diverse, changing needs of students and their communities.
• Collaborating with other disciplines, programs and agencies to integrate and improve services, develop policies, and provide information about health issues and needs.

All strategies, activities, and services offered by, in, or in association with schools that are designed to promote students' physical, emotional, and social development make up a school health program.

When schools work with students, their families and their community to provide these strategies, activities and services in a coordinated, planned way, then we use the term coordinated school health program. Ideally, a coordinated school health program includes several, if not all of the following:

• A healthful environment,
• Nursing and other health services that students need to stay in school,
• Nutritious and appealing school meals,
• Opportunities for physical activity that include physical education,
• Health education that covers a range of developmentally appropriate topics taught by knowledgeable teachers,
• Programs that promote the health of school faculty and staff, and
• Counseling, psychological and social services that promotes healthy social and emotional development and remove barriers to students' learning.

The Department of Health and Senior Services awards contracts to public school districts and/or local public health departments for school-nursing services based upon need. Need is defined by the nurse to student ratio and poverty. The intent of the program is to assure that all school-age children in public schools have access to health care and management of health related barriers to learning. The contracts are outcome-based and measure the success of school districts in developing systems to address access to medical and dental care, identification and remediation of children with potential vision or hearing deficits, and managing children with special health needs such as asthma, diabetes, or seizures.

The School Health Services program is committed to supporting public school districts and nonpublic schools in providing all school-age children with access to a school health service program that is:

• Community-based
• Integrated within and supportive of the educational system
• Managed by a registered professional nurse
• Advised by a school and community group, including parents and students
• Based on accepted standards, regulations and statutes
• Supported by a health service system offering a range of prevention and treatment services, including tobacco control
• Culturally competent and linguistically relevant
• Coordinated with the eight components of a comprehensive school health program, as defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: health education, health services, social and physical environment, physical education, guidance and support services, food service, school and work-site health promotion, and integrated school and community health promotion
• Linked with community primary care, mental health and dental health providers, local youth and family serving agencies, local and state public health and emergency providers, and public insurance outreach programs
• Evaluated regularly to determine its effectiveness and efficiency