Offer Supports to Reduce Health-Related Absences Inspiring Examples
The Chicago Public Schools Children and Family Benefits Unit (CFBU) operates within the district’s Office of Student Health & Wellness and connects eligible families to public benefits such as SNAP (food stamps) and free and low-cost health insurance (Medicaid). Along with application assistance provided by community partners, CBFU also helps families renew and manage their public benefit cases by ensuring that applications are successfully completed and submitted to the Illinois Department of Human Services. This ensures students are able to access the health services they need to stay health and in school.
In Florida, the Manatee County Schools, Alston Webb, METV and the Del Couch Music Foundation collaborated to produce Scrub Club, a video that educates young children about how good hygiene habits can help them to avoid getting sick.
Vision to Learn, a non-profit based in Los Angeles, works with districts to make it easy for students to get eye exams and glasses and for schools to bring its services to campus. Operating in more than 13 states and 300 cities from Honolulu to Baltimore, it has become the largest school-based program of its kind in the nation. Evaluations show that by correcting vision, the program has improved student academic performance.
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