DESIGNING VALUE-BASED MODELS
School-Based Health Expansion
Education is critically important to health — and good health supports attendance, concentration and focus.
In 2021, we secured a contract with the Colonial School District in Delaware, creating the first elementary school-based health center (SBHC) managed by Nemours Children’s Health. During the last two years, we have expanded this successful partnership within the district, extending our reach to eight of its elementary schools and enrolling more than 1,095 students, and added a middle school in Colonial, as well as an additional elementary school outside the district.
Today, we’re averaging 250 appointments per month and have embedded a full-time Care Coordinator to connect student-families to additional resources, as needed.
Through the SBHC, students can access:
Wellness
Nutrition Counseling
Behavioral Health Counseling
Health & Social Services Assistance
Our SBHCs are staffed by nurse practitioners, behavioral health therapists, a medical assistant and a care coordinator who split their time among the centers and work closely with school administrators, nurses, counselors and teachers.
Many students and families do not have medical insurance, so our staff work to connect them to financial services that can assist them with obtaining Medicaid or other means of covering non-SBHC health care costs.
In addition, families can opt to complete our Social Determinant of Health screener enabling our Care Coordinator to connect them to resources at the school (such as food and clothing pantries) or external community services to help meet identified needs.
Nearly 250 students per month access a center with encounters ranging from:
- Office visits
- Prescription refills
- Prescription orders
- Referrals to primary care and dentists
- Behavioral health telehealth or in-person visits
- Social work
- Other care coordination
Some of the top diagnoses at our SBHCs include:
- Well child visit
- Vaccination
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Hearing exam
- Vision screening
- ADHD
- Adjustment disorder
- Nutritional counseling
Nemours Children’s School-Based Health Center gives access to vital services.
Tragically, Christian lost his mother at the age of four. Now six years old and attending school, he had an unexpected traumatic response while in his first-grade classroom. Through the Nemours Children’s School-Based Health Center, Christian’s grandmother, his guardian, was able to access vital mental health services for him within days, removing the barriers of time and transportation, and ensuring he did not miss school as they worked to address his trauma.