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Factors such as the safety of the neighborhood, a family’s socioeconomic status, access to needed services, the availability of healthy food, the quality of the physical environment, and experiences with racism or discrimination, profoundly impact well-being and can severely limit opportunities for growth. Despite limitations on the extent to which these factors can be changed, staff from school-based health centers (SBHCs) and comprehensive school mental health systems (CSMHSs) are well-positioned to assess and take actions to help overcome these obstacles to student achievement, social-emotional development, and wellbeing. This brief defines key concepts and outlines how school health service systems can play a role in addressing factors that affect student academic and health outcomes.
Developed by the Center for Health and Health Care in Schools, the School-Based Health Alliance, and the National Center for School Mental Health, it is part of a series of publications to support the advancement of tools to understand and address SIHE.