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Ok so where to start, like I said things have been crazy but I’ve been having a blast.  So this weekend I attended an event in San Diego; it was the California Latino School Boards Association and the California Coalition of Black School Board Members Conference.  It was a nice event.  However, what really caught my attention was the panel I attended, which was hosted by the Los Angeles County Education Foundation (LACEF).  Their panel was on, Education and Health and the effects health has on students’ success.   That panel was amazing it was hosted by Compton School Board Member Micah Ali and the panelists were California State Assembly Member Holly Mitchell, Dr. Pamela Close, and Daniel Hernandez.

From the moment the 1st word was uttered I was drawn into the discussion.  In the panel I learned a lot about the relationship between students’ health and success.  People often figure that if someone isn’t feeling well, they would miss a day or two of school, and then go back.  In my reality if I was sick, I would stay home for a day, rest, and then the next day I’m back at school; or if I’m really sick, then I would go to the doctor where they would diagnosis me and give me some medicine, and then I’d rest, and I’m back in school in 2-3 days.  Well, what about the kids who do not have insurance, or do not have a doctor to go to.  If someone does not have insurance, then they may not be able to get the care necessary to recover as quickly, which can result in them missing more school.  In addition, without insurance things can go miss-diagnosed or undiagnosed.  A kid can be sitting in class struggling because they are in pain from a tooth ache, or cannot see the board or read the materials due to bad vision, yet their parents do not have insurance to address these issues nor can they afford to.  Again another situation that I never thought about, since it was not my reality, yet these are issues that some people face day to day.  Yet until it was brought to my attention, I never correlate good health and educational achievement, but when I think about it, it seems obvious how the two relate to one another.

LACEF’s panel Education + Health = Critical Combination for Student Success discussed how to address and solve this problem.  The initiative that LACEF is driving is the implementation of school based health centers on or near campuses in the 80 school districts in the Los Angeles County.   These school based health centers will provide primary health care, preventive health, dental care, and mental health services for the students and families of the school, whether they have insurance or not.  Allowing the families and kids living in underserved communities with limited accesses to care the opportunity to get the care they need to succeed in school and stay healthy.  One school based health center that LACEF contributed to is in the Lennox School District which from my understanding has been extremely successful.  Students are able to go to the center for treatment if they need it and ultimately be in a better position to learn.  One of the panelists talked about mobile health centers, that are in their area that services the same purpose as the school based health centers, which I thought was really cool.  I mean just sitting in the audience listen and seeing how passionate the panelists were, inspired me to want to get more involved in health and education in the inner cities and of the next generation of leaders.  In fact, I’m going to an event tomorrow called ECE Works, an event that is talking about Early Care and Education at UCLA.  An event put on by First 5 LA, so I’m excited about that and will be tweeting throughout the day from @MacOnTrack.  Follow me if you want to stay tuned in, it will also be streamed live, and have hashtags, which I will tweet as soon as I get the information about it.

I hope this post has inspired you as much as it did me, and if you would like more information please contact LACEF through their website www.lacef.org, follow them on twitter at @lacefbelieves

Thanks everyone

xoxo MacKenzie

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