December 17, 2021—Washington, DC— The School-Based Health Alliance released an updated Children’s Health and Education Mapping Tool, featuring new capabilities that enable health, education, and other stakeholders to identify each other at a local level and develop new partnerships.
Introduced in 2014 and developed in partnership with HealthLandscape at the Robert Graham Center for Policy Research in Family Medicine and Primary Care, the Mapping Tool uses a Geographic Information System (GIS) to identify areas in the United States where disparities in child health, education, socioeconomic status, health delivery systems, and other key indicators exist in order to develop data-informed strategies to expand school-based health services. The Tool layers data traditionally reported in separate silos and allows the user to view it at a local, state, and national level. By providing this comprehensive landscape, the Tool empowers communities to identify existing resources and create new connections between stakeholders.
“Far too often, schools and health centers in the same community are not connected or coordinated with each other, leading to missed opportunities for partnerships to expand school health services,” said Robert Boyd, President and CEO of the School-Based Health Alliance. “The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic require communities to break down these silos and leverage all resources to meet the health needs of kids, and this Tool provides the unprecedented capability to do just that.”
Key capabilities of the Children’s Health and Education Mapping Tool:
- Display contact information of Health Centers and indicate which schools have existing relationships with those Health Centers
- Zoom in on the map to focus on disparities and resources in a specific area of interest
- Download data on child health and education indicators by county or information on public schools, school-based health centers and Health Centers in the area
- View hospitals and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) clinics
- Ability of organizations to upload their location data to add to the Map as they’re using it
- Filter to display public schools of interest (Title 1 eligible, grades served, free and reduced lunch rate)
- Map US and census geographic boundaries (counties, census tracts, congressional districts, school districts)
To access SBHA’s updated Mapping Tool, visit: www.data.sbh4all.org/sbhadb/maps/
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Since 1995, the School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA), a 501(c) (3) nonprofit corporation, has supported and advocated for high-quality healthcare in schools for the nation’s most vulnerable children. Working at the intersection of healthcare and education, SBHA is recognized as a leader in the field and a source for information on best practices by philanthropic, federal, state, and local partners and policymakers. There are over 2,500 school-based health centers (SBHCs) in the United States. For more information on school-based health care visit www.sbh4all.org or email info@sbh4all.org.