Healthy children lead to classroom success
The regular school year has come to a close, and I was saddened this year to discover that one of the nation’s leading advocates was disappointed with the lack of progress that’s been made in education reform.
I’ve always admired the Gates Foundation’s determination to tackle problems that have long vexed other advocates. There are no easy answers to fixing a broken education system that does not afford every child an equal opportunity to learn, and yet the foundation refused to let the enormity of the challenge deter it from trying to find a solution.
However, after investing generously in this worthy cause for many years, Melinda and Bill Gates revealed that they hadn’t quite moved the needle on education reform as much as they would’ve hoped by now.
As much as it pained me to see such a stark self-assessment for a foundation that has been venerated in education circles for many years, I’m hopeful that this realization leads them to another solution that is showing progress here in Houston. This solution involves merging the foundation’s two greatest philanthropic passions: Creating an environment where children can learn and delivering health care to underserved populations.
Good curriculum, standardized tests and teacher performance are only part of the equation determining whether a child can flourish in the classroom. An equally important indicator of whether a child passes or fails is the communities in which children grow and live.
In Greater Houston, 1 of every 4 children faces the threat of hunger every day. Among the students we serve in 10 school-based clinics spread across the metropolitan region, 93 percent fall below the poverty line. In a city known for having the highest uninsured rate in the country, more than half of the kids we serve have no health insurance coverage.
All of these factors influence a student’s academic performance. Those with rumbling tummies will have a hard time concentrating on math problems. Children worried about where they will sleep at night won’t complete homework assignments. Truancy and misbehavior may actually be cries for help from a student who is sick, depressed, anxious or facing undiagnosed behavioral health problems.
To achieve academic parity, all children deserve an equal playing field. The only way to accomplish that is to integrate support services into the school environment itself, providing a convenient one-stop-shop for students and families to address unmet needs, and giving all children a chance to live healthier lives so that they can focus on their education.
As we begin preparing for the coming school year, I would love to see the school-based health care model adopted by education reform advocates across the United States. I encourage anyone who is interested to come to Houston and meet the children who have thrived when they are provided access to muchneeded mental health services, medical care, regular dental check-ups and fresh fruits and vegetables — all within the comfort of their campus.
Come meet kids in our school-based clinics who missed countless days of school and spent time in and out of emergency rooms before clinic staff connected them with much-needed inhalers and taught their families how to better manage their asthma. Not only did these kids experience fewer asthma attacks following the clinic interventions, but they also had lower rates of ER visits, hospitalizations and school absences.
Come meet kids like Lisandro, a kindergartener who couldn’t write his own name. Recognizing signs of ADHD, the school clinic not only started him on a treatment regimen, but also helped Lisandro’s mother recognize the symptoms of ADHD in her other sons and start a treatment plan for them, too. Today, Lisandro has perfect penmanship and his older brothers — both average students before — now rank among the top in their classes.
Come meet kids like Natalie, who discovered she had dangerously high blood pressure and undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes during a routine school physical. The clinic gave her family vouchers to buy fresh produce and within a few short weeks, Natalie’s numbers had already improved on her new diet that includes broccoli and cauliflower.
We have seen success stories like this happen time and time again in our school-based clinics. When children feel good about themselves and when they are freed from the worries that burden them outside of school, only then can they begin to visualize a future where their education matters.
True educational reform embraces the whole child — addressing not only academic needs, but also physical, mental and social needs — and our schools need strong partnerships to make this happen. Only by working together to address the multiple hurdles faced by many of our community’s children can that goal be achieved.