Healthy children who are available in school as required end up performing well in school. Absenteeism however results as children and adolescents visit doctors and other stay at home sick. Financing school-based health care is a very important aspect of ensuring that about 8. 3 million children in the U. S. who cannot afford quality health care gain access to quality health care. There have however been inconsistencies in financing school-based health care due to lack of effective policies.
This policy paper outlines the problem of inconsistent funding of the school-based health care policy program thereby providing policy objectives and policy options. Encouraging federal grants is identified as the most effective means of funding and sustaining school-based health care. Problem identification For successful learning to take place, the student’s consistent availability in class is of great importance. Any interruption that would cause the student to miss school is bound to adversely affect the academic performance of the student.
Health-related reasons have been cited as among the major causes of absenteeism as the students go to seek for health care services from hospitals and others being at home since they cannot afford health care (W. K. Foundation, 2010). On another note, Brindis and Sanghvi (1997) mention that since there is a great majority of school going adolescence, health problems associated common with adolescents are of major concern. In particular, adolescents not only face problems in accessing health care but they are also vulnerable to a myriad of health problems.
As such, school days are lost as the adolescents seek for health services outside school. Lack of a school-based health care program is among the main contributing factors to this problem. A school-linked health care program is viewed as a possible solution to this problem. Recently (2004), attempts to introduce solve this problem were made by the introduction of the School-Based Health Care Policy Program. The National Assembly on School-Based Health Care (NASBHC) is mandated to run this program in all the states.
School-based health care would be an effective strategy of addressing health needs among adolescents. These include sexual health, mental health, and healthy relationships among other health concerns among adolescents and youths. There is however concerns that provision of contraceptives to school children could be promoting promiscuity among the adolescents (Dailard, 2000). The School-Based Health Clinic Act, 2007 was introduced to ensure that more school-based health clinics are set up and reach more students as a resulting of the federal funding thereof.
This push by the NASBHC is an appreciable move towards ensuring a smooth learning program to students. It is however most unfortunate that school-based health cares has been experiencing inconsistent funding due to lack of proper policies thus failing to meet the needs of school children and local communities. Background America is composed of a substantial percentage of school-attending children and young people.
There are concerns over how the more than 8.3 million students who have no access to quality care can be catered for considering the financial and cultural barriers (W. K. Kellogg Foundation, 2008). This represents a health vulnerable group which must be attended to otherwise the society will be flooded with school dropouts due to health care access related factors. It is noted that school absenteeism is sometimes a school refusal behavior where children may cite health problems as reasons to miss school or attend classes.
For instance, Kearney and Bensaheb (2006) identifies that some students will complain of stomachaches, headaches, and diarrhea among other complaints. With a school-based health care clinic, such issues can be addressed without the student having to be absent from school. Lundy, Lundy and Janes (2009) mention that providing school-based clinics increases the probability of students successfully graduating from high school by up to twice compared to those who do not receive school-based health care.