Notes From the Field: Diverse Partner Perspectives Improve the Usability and Equity Focus of Implementation Guides.

Context: School-based asthma programs (SBAPs) have improved health and educational disparities among youth with asthma.

Design: To support scaling out effective SBAPs, our school partners identified a need for online implementation guides that are "always available," to meet the needs of school nurses' demanding schedules. School nurses play a key role in the adoption and implementation of SBAPs, so it is important to ensure the implementation guide would be highly usable and acceptable to them.

Designing School Health Services to Provide Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) for All Students.

A system-level health equity lens is needed to meet the needs of today's students. School nurses stand at the intersection of health and education, poised to improve the health and academic outcomes for all children in collaboration with school health and education colleagues with a focus to reframe "learning and health losses" to "learning and health recovery." The Multi-Tiered System of Support is a familiar approach used in schools to address education equity for students.

Proposed solutions by the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology and advocacy experts to address racial disparities in atopic dermatitis and food allergy.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) and food allergies are more prevalent and more severe in people with skin of color than White individuals. The American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology (ACAAI) sought to understand the effects of racial disparities among patients with skin of color with AD and food allergies. The ACAAI surveyed its members (N = 200 completed), conducted interviews with health care providers and advocacy leaders, and hosted a roundtable to explore the challenges of diagnosis and management of AD and food allergies in people with skin of color and to discuss potential solutions.

Using Local School Wellness Policies to Build a Culture of Health for Students With Chronic Health Conditions: The School Nurse Role.

Local school wellness policies (LWP) guide school districts' efforts to establish school environments that promote students' health, well-being, and ability to learn that include school U.S. Department of Agriculture nutrition and physical activity requirements.

School Nurse-Led Care Coordination: Proceedings From the National .

This article describes the process for convening a national Roundtable that brought together multiple stakeholders to create a united vision and collaborative approach to care coordination for students with chronic health conditions and introduces the resulting published Translating Strategies into Actions to Improve Care Coordination for Students with Chronic Health Conditions white paper. Schools across the country are engaged to various degrees in addressing the health and academic success of students with chronic health conditions. Lack of a common definition of care coordination presents ongoing challenges to planning, implementing, and evaluating outcomes of care coordination for students with chronic health conditions.

Advocating for Oral Health Through Fluoridation.

Eight school nurses attended the American Academy of Pediatrics' Campaign for Dental Health meeting in March 2018, which focused on community water fluoridation programs. Because of aging infrastructure and antifluoridation community activists, some communities are considering stopping fluoridation programs. The benefits of water fluoridation have been demonstrated since the 1950s.

The Mental Health Training Intervention for School Nurses and Other Health Providers in Schools.

School nurses encounter many students presenting with mental health needs. However, school nurses report that they need additional training and resources to be able to support student mental health. This study involved a multilevel, stakeholder-driven process to refine the Mental Health Training Intervention for Health Providers in Schools (MH-TIPS), an in-service training and implementation support system for school health providers, including school nurses, to increase their competence in addressing student mental health concerns.

Increasing immunization rates through the immunization neighborhood recognizing school-located immunization programs.

Vaccines are considered one of the top 10 public health achievements in the United States; however, coverage rates for many of the recommended child and adolescent vaccines fall short of Healthy People 2020 goals. The vaccine delivery infrastructure in our country might be the most important limiting factor in achieving the vaccine uptake targets. Renewing the focus on schools for both vaccine delivery and vaccine promotion has the potential to augment other emerging alternate vaccination sites within the immunization neighborhood.

How school nurses can benefit from immunization information systems: information exchange to keep students in school and ready to learn.

Recorded and retrievable information from state immunization information systems (IIS)--previously known as immunization registries--benefits schools, students, families, state and local immunization programs, and the medical home. The National Association of School Nurses (NASN), the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO), and the American Immunization Registry Association (AIRA) support state IIS as a way to facilitate immunization compliance, prevent immunization duplications, and sustain high immunization rates. There is much variability from state to state on who can access and/or input data into the IIS.

CDC update on pertussis surveillance and Tdap vaccine recommendations.

Pertussis is the most poorly controlled bacterial vaccine-preventable disease. Since the early 1980s there has been an increase in reported cases of pertussis. Multiple factors have likely contributed to the increase, including waning immunity, increased recognition, and changes in diagnostic testing and reporting.

A collaborative approach to diabetes management: the choice made for Colorado schools.

Students with diabetes deserve a school nurse who can effectively manage the disease. Tensions between the school and families sometimes emerge when a child with diabetes goes to school. To resolve these tensions in Colorado, stakeholders collaborated to implement a statewide program to meet the needs of students with diabetes.

Diabetes management at school: application of the healthy learner model.

Every child with diabetes deserves a school nurse with the capacity to effectively manage the disease at school. The school nurse needs knowledge and skills to confidently provide care and communicate with health care providers and families. The Healthy Learner Model for Chronic Condition Management provided a framework to eliminate the disjointed approach to diabetes management at school, replacing it with a consistent, evidence-based approach.