The California Association of Health Plans (CAHP) and the California Teachers Association (CTA) recognize the correlation between a child's health status and school performance. While comprehensive and integrated school-based efforts to enroll uninsured children have been endorsed by government and private agencies, teachers, the most trusted line of communication to parents, have not been meaningfully engaged in health outreach. The goal of the Teachers for Healthy Kids Project is to address this situation by promoting teachers as information resources that can enhance parent awareness and lead to increased student access to health care.
CTA and CAHP propose to meet this goal by implementing a multi-phase statewide health insurance outreach program targeted to schools of greatest need. In order to build teacher support for the project, the 335,000 members of CTA will receive a statewide informational mailing about available health insurance programs in the fall. Initial outreach efforts will be concentrated in the school districts implementing Express Lane Eligibility.
To maximize the effectiveness of a teacher outreach program, focus groups were held to assess teacher knowledge of health insurance issues and explore their willingness to participate in health outreach. The research showed that although teachers recognized that many classroom problems were directly related to a student's lack of health care, they were unaware of programs for the uninsured. It was found that, generally, if educated about the availability of programs, teachers would welcome a role in providing information to parents.
The first phase of the project would provide a framework to 1) establish teachers as a key link to parents in health outreach; 2) educate teachers regarding health insurance and its availability; 3) test messages and strategies that result in positive interactions between teachers and parents; 4) position teachers as part of a school outreach team including school administrators, school board members, school nurses, support staff, parent-teacher organizations, health plans and community organizations; 5) help obtain formal agreements with school districts for coordinated health outreach and; 6) expand the program to schools of greatest need in other areas as program elements are tested and additional resources become available.
The health plans will play a critical role in the development of a curriculum for teacher education and training. They will provide expertise in the development of educational materials and will serve as trainers and continuing resources along with project staff. The health plans will sponsor and participate in school activities as appropriate and needed.
The project will work in conjunction with the larger Express Lane Eligibility project and make use of their evaluation strategies. Measuring the increased awareness of teachers about student health insurance programs will help determine the goals and activities for phases two and three.
The project is designed to address critical health issues impacting student performance in low performing schools. Teachers and health plans working together can help improve student health status and school performance by increasing access to health care.