Project Description Narrative:
The equation is simple: Healthy child = healthy learner = academic achievement. It is clear that poor child health negatively impacts school learning and academic achievement. Those who experience poor health as children have significantly poorer health outcomes as adults, as well as lower education attainment and lower social status. Families incur the costs of poor health not only in dollars, but in terms of stress, depression, fatigue, reduced productivity at work, and lost work days.
Wisconsin school nursing services are ranked 41st out of 50 states. With limited health expertise and resources currently available, Wisconsin's school district administrators, school board representatives, and school nurses lack a quality assessment tool to critically look at the quality of care provided to children and youth in the school setting.
The goal of this project is to increase the competency and capacity of local school health services systems by creating, piloting, and evaluating a school health services quality assessment tool which will be complemented by resources, templates and educational materials to address priorities identify through the assessment results.
Community partners: Wisconsin Association of Local Health Departments and Boards (WALHDAB), Wisconsin Association of School Nurses (WASN), Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), Wisconsin Division of Public Health (DPH)