The Kentucky Department of Education’s (KDE’s) School Health Branch is making strides to help schools in the areas of nutrition, health services and physical activity.
Created in June 2023, the branch operates in KDE’s Office of Finance and Operations, Division of District Support. Part of its funding comes from a five-year cooperative agreement with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The branch’s main duties are to develop and share school health tools, deliver professional learning and technical assistance to educators, school nurses and administrators, collect school health data to further inform Kentucky education policy and practice, and increase people’s knowledge of the connections between student academic and health outcomes.
Branch Manager Jim Tackett said the branch promotes student and staff well-being through the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) lens.
WSCC is a collaborative framework between ASCD and the CDC for integrating education and health to support children’s cognitive, physical, social and emotional development. It focuses on collaboration between schools, communities and health sectors to align resources, programs and policies that benefit the whole child.
In addition to Tackett, the branch has seven staff members – a state nurse consultant, resource management analyst, three program health administrators for eastern, central and western Kentucky, a Healthy Schools project director and a school health consultant, both of whom are funded by the CDC initiative.
KDE Health Services Background
KDE has a long history of supporting school health, through past CDC funding. A CDC cooperative agreement in 1999 provided schools professional learning sessions, programs and policy enhancements.
In 2011, Kentucky joined an initiative with the National Association of State Boards of Education to strengthen education and health efforts. As a result, the Kentucky Board of Education (KBE) created a subcommittee to facilitate continued discussions on school health and its role in meeting students’ needs while preparing them for their futures
The group is called the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Subcommittee and has more than 30 members, including representatives from:
- The Kentucky Department for Behavioral Health, Developmental and Intellectual Disabilities;
- The Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence;
- Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky;
- The Kentucky Division of Family Resource Youth Service Centers;
- Kentucky Out-of-School Alliance;
- Kentucky SHAPE;
- Kentucky Association of School Administrators;
- Partners for Rural Impact;
- Green River Regional Educational Cooperative; and
- HealthFirst Lexington.
The subcommittee also has two KBE members. They meet a day prior to the KBE’s regular meetings to discuss how the state can collaborate with schools on health initiatives.
Tackett explained that this group paved the way for Kentucky to receive more CDC funding, impacting more schools, districts and local communities.
“When COVID hit, one of the things I think that really positioned Kentucky well, if we could have been positioned well, was that we already had that subcommittee formed,” he said. “We were not trying to create relationships with partners that we had never worked with before, so that really helped us be able to get to work on the issue at hand. We knew each other’s strengths and expertise.”
During the COVID-19 outbreak, the need for physical and mental health support grew in schools across the country. Tackett said the pandemic exacerbated some student health issues that had not been receiving enough attention.
“Some of those issues had been swept under the rug a little bit over the years, but it really came to a head when the pandemic hit and we saw all of these issues rise up as things that we had to address,” Tackett said.
KDE needed to accommodate the increased demand, so the department started the School Health Branch to help educators with implementing best practices, professional learning and caring for the needs of students, especially with acute and chronic health conditions.
Tackett said the School Health Branch was the vision of Robin Fields Kinney, who served as interim commissioner of KDE and as associate commissioner of KDE’s Office of Finance and Operations.
“She saw firsthand the impact student health had on educational and lifelong success,” he said. “This was especially brought to light during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Staff Roles
State Nurse Consultant Angela McDonald is directly involved in assisting nurses with student health needs.
Before the School Health Branch was established, she was the only person solely devoted to school health services at KDE. Prior to joining KDE, McDonald was a school nurse for almost a decade and was a district health coordinator for six years. She started as the state nurse consultant in 2019 and worked in the KDE Student Tracking and Data Branch.
When the pandemic hit, McDonald contributed to developing the state’s response plan, collaborating with KDE leadership, the Kentucky Department for Public Health and other state-level school nurse consultants to formulate health guidance.
“My role was pivotal in educating various stakeholders on pertinent laws, nursing practices and COVID-19 guidelines,” McDonald said. “I provided timely guidance and resources to school health staff across the Commonwealth through emails and frequent webinars. “Additionally, I contributed to the Healthy at School guidance and the National Association of State School Nurse Consultants Advisory statement regarding the pandemic.”
Tackett explained that students are coming to school with more complex or chronic health issues that impact their time in the classroom, such as diabetes, asthma and mental health conditions. Part of McDonald’s duties are to give technical assistance to schools to help meet the needs of students who need special care.
Her other daily duties include talking with school nurses and school administrators who may need guidance on health service policies, giving guidance on disease outbreaks in school and attending meetings with state leaders. She contributes to task forces and initiatives and talks with state legislators and other leaders about the needs of school nurses and students.
“One of the most rewarding aspects of my role is visiting local school districts to observe firsthand the exceptional work of Kentucky’s nurses,” McDonald said. “I believe it is crucial to support them in their endeavors, whether by providing best practice guidance, advising on new health initiatives or protocols, or simply being a supportive presence who understands their work and can offer a shoulder to lean on.”
Regional field staff also provide direct assistance to districts. Each region of Kentucky has a health administrator to assist schools and districts in day-to-day operations and support the needs of students and staff. They make school visits to assist district health coordinators and school nurses if they have specific issues, help districts assess policies and procedures to determine how streamlining can take place, and they provide professional learning and technical assistance. They also assist districts in reporting accurate data to show the benefit of health services and meeting the needs of the whole child.
The CDC agreement requires KDE’s School Health Branch to identify one school district to strategically work with for the duration of the initiative. After careful consideration of multiple data sources and required performance measures, the branch chose Fayette County, which is the second largest district in the state.
The agreement fully funds one staff member to focus exclusively on this district. The Healthy Schools project director helps Fayette County with needs assessments, teacher training, incorporating best practices, data collection and evaluation, and aligning work into existing efforts.
While Fayette County may have been the priority district chosen for the current CDC cooperative agreement, any other district or school in the Commonwealth are invited to reach out to KDE’s School Health Branch for assistance in infrastructure development, trainings, technical assistance or tools and resources in hopes to further amplify student health and well-being.
Measuring Success
KDE School Health Branch staff members also work with teachers to provide opportunities for students to have physical activity in their day.
“We work to help students and help educators understand that it’s next to impossible to have young people sitting for six hours and meet desired academic and health outcomes,” Tackett said.
They help teachers incorporate physical activity into lesson plans, emphasizing that movement helps students learn better. Not only has this been repeatedly documented in brain research, but we also anecdotally witness it with young people and adults alike.
“We saw an increase in teachers incorporating physical activity into their classroom,” Tackett said. “We also saw an increase in the amount of interaction and opportunities for health to be incorporated into the school day, whether that be healthy eating or management of students with chronic conditions or mental health strategies.”
School Health Branch staff members also partner with local community groups, such as an extension office, local physicians and student groups, to help their local schools enhance student and staff wellbeing.
Support from the branch may become more critical as federal COVID-19 relief grants are coming to an end.
Numerous districts used Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funds to hire more nurses and buy supplies to address student health needs during the pandemic. However, with ESSER funds expired, many districts face a challenging decision of whether they can fund school nurses on their own.
Tackett explained that some Kentucky districts contract with third party entities, called federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). FQHCs are community-based organizations that provide prevention and intervention services, including physical, dental and mental health. They provide services and nurses to districts who may not have the necessary staff and medical equipment, which is a great way for districts to still provide support to students. FQHCs are able to bill Medicaid for services provided as well.
“Separating a student’s health and educational needs are impossible. We arrive as a whole person and we must create settings which empower students to gain healthy knowledge, skills and behaviors to carry them beyond the classrooms, but into their careers and beyond.”
He said the health branch will continue to help schools in their health efforts, and anyone who has questions or needs assistance can email Tackett.
