Schools across the United States develop Rural School-Based Services Programs (RSBSP) as a response to a lack of accessibility for rural students and their families. Through RSBSP, schools can connect rural students to vital services, such as healthcare and social service programs, that neither they nor their families would have been able to access without the schools’ intervention. Here, we’ll cover the rise of different school-based models, including school-linked services, school-based health centers, and Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child.
Rural students: overlooked before RSBSP
An estimate of over 9.3 million, or one in five students, attend a rural school in the United States. Unfortunately, many of those same rural students lack proper access to adequate quality learning materials and instruction (beginning in preschool), medical care, mental health care, and other services. As a result, rural students are often known as “high-risk children.”
Over the years, rural communities have been teaming up with school systems to integrate local healthcare and social service programs. The following are a few types of school-based models that exist for the needs of rural children.
School-linked services
In this model, the school connects rural students and their families to different community organizations with which school administrators have created partnerships. Schools expect that linking the rural community with proper resources will, in turn, increase access to health and social services.
The most common ways to integrate school-linked services are creating mobile units to regularly visit the school, creating a collaboration between the school and services available in the community, and offering referrals so rural families can access the services they need.
School-based health centers
This model aims to improve the health of rural students and their families. School-based health centers provide primary healthcare on-site/on school grounds. Many rural students and their families rely on these health centers for primary care, immunizations, dental care, health screenings, and health-based education.
Creating and implementing school-based health centers have resulted in positive educational outcomes (increased school performance) and improved health outcomes (lowered asthma morbidity, increased contraceptive use, etc.). Approximately 20% of these health centers obtain funding through the Health Resources & Services Administration (HRSA) Health Center Program.
Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child
This model stems from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and some rural schools have already started putting this program into practice. Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) exists so that children can grow and develop as healthy as possible, and its goal is to empower students so that they are safe, engaged, supported, challenged, and healthy.
The WSCC model has ten different components involved to achieve its goal. These components include physical activity, nutritional services, health education, health services, emotional climate, physical environment, psychological services, employee wellness, community involvement, and family engagement. Overall, the WSCC model helps improve learning and health.
Conclusion
When school faculty, parents, students, and community members work together, essential services such as the RSBSP are created to ensure equal access and equal opportunity for all children, including those in rural areas.
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