Introduction: Pennsylvania's Student Assistance Program (SAP) began in the mid-1980s to address student barriers to academic success. SAP teams, groups of trained school and community professionals, review referrals, and connect students to services. State leadership conducts an annual SAP team survey, but capacity to evaluate data and affect…

Background: Youth mental health rates of depression and anxiety continue to climb. Schools have a role to play to support youth mental health but often struggle to navigate community expectations. Methods: Focus groups (n = 17) were conducted with over 100 participants to understand community perceptions on the role of schools. Results: Three…

Background: Students' sense of school belonging is important for mental health, physical health, and academic performance. However, some students do not feel as though they belong in their schools. This study investigated Greek secondary school students' perspectives on practices that enhanced their sense of belonging during the COVID-19 pandemic.…

Background: Involving communities in school health has been purported as a practice integral to supporting a Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) approach. Although community collaboration is often included in school-based health initiatives, there is little research considering methods for increasing community engagement. The purpose…

Background: Unintentional injuries are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among children and adolescents in the United States. Traditional injury education interventions for children often are inaccessible due to cost and logistics in underserved communities, exacerbating injury disparities. A new approach is needed to close this gap for…

Background: Farm-to-school interventions are recommended strategies to improve dietary behaviors among school-aged children. Tools are needed to assess community readiness and capacity to optimize farm-to-school implementation. The objective of this study was to identify and prioritize factors to inform tailored farm-to-school implementation by…

Background: Frameworks such as the WSCC model provide evidence-based guidance for addressing school health at the school, district, and regional level. However, frameworks do not implement themselves; they require the mobilization and collaboration of stakeholders within communities and an understanding of the unique resources and barriers within…

Purpose: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a concern that cyberbullying incidents would increase as youth were spending more time online. Additionally, reports emerged that Asian American citizens were being disproportionately targeted due to the purported origination of the disease. The current study explores whether cyberbullying…

Background: In 2012, Chicago Public Schools and the Chicago Department of Public Health partnered together to create the Chicago School-Based Vision Program (CSBVP). This ongoing, city-wide program provides school-based vision services (eye examinations, eyeglasses provision, and eye care referrals) to students with limited access. Methods:…

Background: The benefits of youth engagement are well documented. In this paper, we examine youth engagement in America's Promise Alliance's Every School Healthy initiative, a part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's "Together for Healthy and Successful Schools Initiative (THSS)." Methods: Six community acceleration sites were…

Background: The Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) provides free and nutritious meals to children under age 18 during out-of-school times. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Maryland sponsors served over 9.5 million meals to children through an expanded version of the SFSP. This study aimed to explore and compare the factors that enabled 2 SFSP…

Background: A statewide 6-month school administrator health and wellness program encouraged participants to use a fitness tracker to self-monitor their physical activity and sleep patterns. The purpose of this study was to examine participants' experience in a school administrator health and wellness program and their perceptions of the impact on…

Background: Case investigation and contact tracing (CI/CT) are important public health tools to interrupt COVID-19 transmission. Our study aims to understand how parents and school staff perceive COVID-19 CI/CT. Methods: Using a mixed methods approach, we distributed a community survey and conducted 15 focus group discussions (FGDs) in English and…

Background: Individuals learn and develop across their lifespan in response to the people with whom they interact in settings, communities, cultures, and experiences. Collaborative research and policy efforts underscore the critical and reparative role of identity-safe, culturally driven, and relationship-rich environments--in classrooms, schools,…

Background: School-based COVID-19 testing is a potential strategy to limit COVID-19 transmission among youth in congregate settings such as schools, sports programs, and summer camps. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of frequent rapid antigen testing at a supervised distance-learning setting for elementary…