childrenshealthfund.org
C H I L D R E N ’ S H E A LT H F U N D WINTER 2015
Ensuring kids are healthy and ready to learn
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Better Learning In Sight. New glasses are bringing lessons into focus for hundreds of children at Healthy and Ready to Learn demonstration schools in New York City.
Out of Medicine, Out of School At age four, José was already in danger of falling behind in school. The reason? Asthma. The preschooler from Austin, Texas takes numerous medications for asthma and allergies. But when his mother’s Medicaid benefits lapsed and she ran out of medicines for José, she couldn’t afford to pay for them herself. José was sent home from pre-Kindergarten out of concern for his untreated asthma. He’d already missed a full week, and there was no solution in sight. Dr. Marilyn Doyle, medical director of the Children’s Health
Getting asthma under control keeps kids in class
ids have a job to do, and that is going to school and doing their best so they can succeed in life. But not all kids are ready for this job. Children raised in poverty often lack access to health care, meaning they go to school with untreated health problems, or they stay home sick and miss critical class time. As adults, our job is solving this problem. That’s why Children’s Health Fund is working to help close the learning gap and ensure all America’s children are healthy and ready to learn. Our multifaceted approach includes a demonstration program at three New York City public elementary schools, where we are showing what can be achieved when you tackle multiple health barriers to learning simultaneously in a supportive school environment. Our innovative model places a school health coordinator in each school who works with teachers, school administrators, parents and the students themselves to identify kids with health barriers and connect them to care. Because behavioral health issues destabilize so many low-income children, the Healthy and Ready to Learn school-based
Fund program in Austin, heard about this situation from a colleague at Dell Children’s Hospital. “Send him to our mobile clinic,” Dr. Doyle suggested. When José arrived with his mom, nurse practitioner Lisa Butterworth examined him. Half an hour later, the family left with prescriptions for all his medications. His mom could fill the prescriptions at no cost at a local pharmacy. Crisis solved. “There was no place else they could go to get the medication CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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A word from the President
Raising Awareness Coast to Coast. Our Healthy and Ready to Learn PSA campaign aired nationally on television and radio. childrenshealthfund.org
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or almost three decades, Children’s Health Fund has been bringing mobile pediatric clinics to schools across the country so kids in need can have access to health care. Our goal has always been to make sure that children are healthy, so they can learn and thrive. But time and again, we were seeing health conditions—like vision problems and asthma that are readily treated and resolved—hold kids back in the classroom. It’s time for this to change. We need to bring a laser-like focus to health barriers to learning. We can’t allow untreated health problems to undermine the promise of education to lift children out of poverty. All children deserve the opportunity to do their best in school without the unfair burden of untreated health problems. With the launch of our Healthy and Ready to Learn initiative last year, we are expanding the impact of our expertise beyond our fleet of mobile clinics, directly into schools and the broader community. We have started a pilot school-based program in New York City as a laboratory for solutions that can be replicated. We are also taking our message to the public across America. Thanks to the NAB Education Foundation, which honored Paul Simon for his philanthropy with a gift of $1.5 million in commercial airtime, we aired TV and radio announcements to raise awareness of health barriers to learning. Educators know there is a health crisis in the classroom, but they lack the time and tools to help students with medical problems. We are mobilizing the pediatric care community to ensure kids are screened appropriately, and reaching out to parents about the importance of getting their kids checked for health problems. Pediatricians, parents and educators must be essential partners in caring for our kids. Let’s work together to make sure 100% of America’s kids are healthy and ready to learn. Irwin Redlener, MD
PRESIDENT & CO-FOUNDER
OUT OF MEDICINE, OUT OF SCHOOL CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
that fast,” Dr. Doyle said. Missing a week of pre-K may not seem like a big deal. But a 2013 study in Chicago found that students who were frequently absent from preschool scored lower on skills like letter recognition and math. By second grade, those students were five times more likely to be chronically absent. Children chronically absent for multiple years scored significantly lower on reading tests at the end of second grade. “You don’t want to establish a pattern early on of missing school because of health problems,” said Nurse Butterworth. “That’s not a good habit to get into.” José’s mother is now getting help to re-enroll in Medicaid at her regular clinic. “She knows if she has problems in the future, she can always come here,” said Dr. Doyle. The work Dr. Doyle and her team are doing is not only giving disadvantaged kids in Austin the opportunity for success in school, it’s also providing invaluable data and insights to Children’s Health Fund as we develop a national model to screen for and address health barriers to learning for all children.
By the numbers
10.5 MILLION
school days missed due to asthma Several studies of kids in vulnerable communities show that more than
20% of kids have failed vision screening
51% of students in public schools live in poor or low-income families
measured by eligibility for federally funded free and reduced-price lunches
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ENSURING KIDS ARE HEALTHY... CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
team also includes a mental health clinician who provides on-site counseling and support. The impact is already transformative, explains Frank Hernandez, school principal at PS 49 in the South Bronx—one of the poorest Congressional districts in the country. “The school health coordinator and social worker have already successfully integrated into our school team,” he said, “and they are expanding our capacity to help the students become true scholars.” A first priority at PS 49 and the other two pilot schools has been to make sure kids can see the board and read their books. Since the start of the 2014-2015 school year, we have screened nearly all of the elementary school children in these three schools and found that over 21% of the kids failed the vision screening and exam. Most of them needed glasses. We brought optometrists into the schools to provide examinations and write eyeglass prescriptions. We are continuing to distribute two free pairs of glasses for each child in need, one to wear home, and one to keep at school. Nydia Santiago-Galvin, the school health coordinator at PS 49, remembers that trying on eyeglass frames was a major highlight for children last semester. “They were smiling from ear to ear.”
Deputy Mayor Richard Beury visited PS 140 to learn more about Children’s Health Fund’s innovative Healthy and Ready to Learn demonstration schools.
At PS 140 in the South Bronx, our school health coordinator Barbara Alicea has been working with the school nurse to identify children with chronic asthma and prevent severe asthma attacks. “We are checking to see if every child with asthma has a medical authorization form on file. The form enables children to be treated for asthma at school,” explained Alicea. “If it’s missing, we work together on how to get it.” The school health coordinators have become invaluable partners to school nurses who don’t have enough time to focus on prevention in a
Don’t hesitate to vaccinate
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ith measles outbreaks in more than a dozen states, the media has been turning to Children’s Health Fund president Dr. Irwin Redlener for expert pediatric advice. In recent interviews on television and radio, he has been urging parents to make sure their children are vaccinated against this highly contagious disease. Explaining that the measles vaccine is incredibly safe, Dr. Redlener told MSNBC viewers not to hesitate, saying: “We just don’t remember how serious this disease was” prior to the vaccine. Measles has been eliminated in the United States since 2000, but previously there were as many as 500 deaths annually from measles.
Dr. Redlener, who also holds faculty appointments in pediatric and health policy and management at Columbia University and is director of the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia, emphasizes that science— not disproven theories—must guide public vaccine policy and parental decision-making. Ensuring that children in poverty have access to health care to get the critical vaccinations they need is an essential part of our mission at Children’s Health Fund. You can learn more about the measles vaccination and the importance of herd immunity by visiting childrenshealthfund.org and following the link to Dr. Redlener’s interviews.
WINTER 2015
school with hundreds of children. Part of the role of the school health coordinator is to work with educators and parents to reduce student absences and tardiness. Children who miss school frequently struggle to keep up with peers. Wenimo Okoya, the school health coordinator at PS 36 in West Harlem is coming to terms with the scope of this problem. “What I’m recognizing is that it isn’t just about coming to school—it’s about coming to school on time,” she said, noting that tardiness in the first semester has already cost some children the equivalent of several days of school. As part of the pilot program, teachers are using new software and other tools to increase communication with parents about school absence and late arrivals so we can increase awareness of the importance of attendance and understand the role health problems play in these lost school hours. In addition to vision and asthma, the demonstration school program, which will be developed over three years, also focuses on identifying dental pain, hearing impairments, fatigue, social stressors, and hunger—health barriers to learning that are all prevalent in high-poverty communities. Generous funding from Jaguar Land Rover North America and H&M Conscious Foundation in partnership with Columbia University’s Earth Institute, along with private philanthropy, has enabled us to launch this project. And we’re looking forward to seeing more and more students become healthy and ready to learn.
C H I L D R E N ’ S H E A LT H F U N D
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U.S. POSTAGE PAID SYRACUSE, NY
215 WEST 125TH STREET, SUITE 301
PERMIT #1550
NEW YORK, NY 10027
WINTER 2015
Learning Minus Health Barriers Equals Success
Controlling Asthma Keeps Kids In Class
Protect Your Kids, And Others, From Measles
You Make It Happen!
Move to improve When the body is healthy, the mind works better. Research shows that just a few minutes of stretching and exercise can help students be more alert and concentrate better. That’s why Children’s Health Fund has trained teachers in its pilot schools to get kids out of their seats and moving so they can be even healthier and more ready to learn.
Over 4,500 immigrant children who recently entered the United States alone—without a parent or adult—now reside in New York. They need health care and support. Thanks to the generosity of JM Kaplan Fund, van Ameringen Foundation and Robin Hood, we are expanding our integrated one-day per week program that provides these vulnerable youth with medical, mental health, legal counsel, tutoring and other social services—all under one roof.
Our South Bronx Health Center, with seed funding from the Child Welfare Fund, has launched a dyadic counseling program for mothers and their babies. As part of the program, the psychologist videotapes mother and baby interacting. Each week, the psychologist shows the mom parts of the tape that reinforce what she does well, and encourages mom to think about ways to improve bonding.
Since 2007, the Deerfield Foundation has joined Children’s Health Fund in connecting homeless and low-income families with the health care services they need. The Deerfield Foundation has increased its investment in the Deerfield Clinic for Children and Families serving homeless families, and health care visits for uninsured and underinsured children at all our New York City programs.
Homeless families are likely not to have the resources necessary to access and afford health care services. Children’s Health Fund’s New York Children’s Health Project brings those essential services to vulnerable New York City families via mobile medical clinics. Renewed grant support in 2014 from Hess Corporation helps keep those mobile clinics on the road and caring for kids.