The School-Based Health Alliance celebrates yesterday’s passage of H.R. 2075, the School-Based Health Centers Reauthorization Act of 2020 in the U.S. House of Representatives. This bill extends the authorization for federal funding of school-based health centers through 2025, and would help provide vital, affordable health care for our nation’s students and families at over 2,500 school-based health centers across the country.
“School-based health centers are more important than ever. At a time when COVID-19 has made it extremely challenging to provide essential care to low-income students and families, we have seen centers across the country step up to provide telehealth or in-person health care, even while school buildings remain closed,” said Robert Boyd, president of the School-Based Health Alliance. “This reauthorization enables school-based health centers to continue their important work and provide health care in a location that is safe, convenient, and accessible.”
The School-Based Health Alliance is grateful to the bill’s primary sponsors Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), a longtime advocate for school-based health centers, Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.), Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), and Fred Upton (R-Mich.), as well as partner organizations supporting the bill, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, Children’s Defense Fund, the Children’s Hospital Association, the National Association of Community Health Centers, and the Trust for America's Health, among others.
“Across the country, millions of students and families rely on school-based health centers to receive affordable health care and vital preventative services,” said Rep. Sarbanes in a statement. “Our bipartisan effort to support and enhance SBHCs nationwide will help keep our children safe and healthy – especially during the ongoing COVID-19 public health emergency.”
“The next step in this reauthorization process is for the Senate to move quickly to pass the Senate companion bill, S. 1013,” Boyd said. “We are confident that we will see the same bipartisan support for this important legislation in the Senate as we did in the House, as we know we can all agree on the importance of ensuring that our nation’s most vulnerable children and families have access to essential health care services during a pandemic.”
For more information about school-based health centers, visit www.sbh4all.org.
About the School-Based Health Alliance
Based in Washington, D.C., the School-Based Health Alliance is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization that was founded in 1995 and serves as the national voice for school-based health care. The Alliance provides technical assistance, resources, and training to school-based health care professionals, enabling them to provide the best-quality health care to their patients. In addition, it advocates for policies on the local, state, and federal level that strengthen school health. The Alliance supports its technical assistance and advocacy work—and the entire school-based health care field—through quality research and evaluation.