Description
The overall health of students has an impact on the complete success of today's schools. Students struggle to attend school daily when they have medical, dental, and mental health needs that go untreated. Without access to services, disparities will continue to be prevalent within communities where students need more support. The author examined the necessity for comprehensive school-based health services in urban and rural communities as a vehicle for re-igniting the conversation at a local, state, and national level. Research questions supported the researcher in finding out how Local Education Agencies (LEAs) are allocating resources within the Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP), what are they doing to leverage resources, and what does the funding system look like that supports comprehensive school based health services. This study employed mixed methods research. By conducting a document analysis of LCAPs, the researcher was able to use descriptive statistics as a way of documenting the need and bringing about an understanding of how funds are allocated for comprehensive school-based health services. The results of this study suggest that while there are a couple of outlier school districts, LEAs in the state of California are not doing enough to provide services that support comprehensive school-based health services in their LCAPs. In addition, specific themes and trends can be found in LCAPs to support the need for comprehensive school-based health services, but the money needed to sustain services is far from publically documented.
