Schools have “a unique ability to create and build the pipeline that all of these school diversification efforts want to take advantage of.”
— Kimá Joy Taylor
Healthy Schools Campaign widely recognizes the value of a diversified school health workforce to meet student needs and promote their well-being. The videos and resources in this section are designed to increase school stakeholder awareness and encourage future policy and practice actions at national, state and local levels.
In the videos below, Kimá Joy Taylor, M.D., MPH, an expert on health policy, public health and racial disparities, and Jessie Mandle, HSC national program director, discuss diversifying and expanding the school health pipeline. They highlight why a diversified workforce and equity are important, the roles of schools and partners, and the resources and supports needed to advance this work.
Plus: View a related slide series summarizing key themes from conversations with Kimá Joy Taylor.
Video production services donated by Let’s Roll.
This section features workforce diversification resources relevant to enhancing the school health pipeline divided into three sections: school mental & behavioral health; healthcare; and other school diversification efforts & lessons learned. Many of these resources suggest strategies and promising practices that school stakeholders could apply to this work.
School Mental & Behavioral Health
- Effective School-Community Partnerships to Support School Mental Health
National Association of School Psychologists and National Center for School Mental Health
Provides an overview of the key elements of school-community partnerships and includes action steps for states, districts and communities to foster effective collaboration between schools and community health and behavioral health partners, including ways to support the school mental health workforce. - The Landscape of School-Based Mental Health Services
Kaiser Family Foundation
Explores the landscape of mental health services in schools during the 2021-2022 school year, barriers to offering services (including provider shortages), and how recent policies facilitate the expansion of school-based mental health care, highlighting variances in staffing models and funding strategies to support school mental health services. - Addressing the Youth Mental Health Crisis Through Equitable School-Based Services
The Center for Law and Social Policy
Discusses the importance and effectiveness of providing school-based health services — especially for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and disabled young people and includes key workforce considerations. - The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act: Mental Health Wins Undermined for Black and Brown Youth
The Center for Law and Social Policy
Provides an overview and timelines of key BSCA mental health provisions and offers recommendations for centering equity such as diversification of providers in the workforce. - State Strategies to Increase Diversity in the Behavioral Health Workforce
National Academy for State Health Policy
Includes examples and lessons learned from states focused on Black and Indigenous People of Color (BIPOC) engagement in the behavioral health workforce in particular, as well as strategies for workforce diversity more generally. - Improving School Workforce Capacity to Address Youth Mental Health
Association of State and Territorial Health Officials
Provides tools to support three strategies to improve workforce capacity: 1) develop pre-service recruitment and training, 2) increase school staff mental health literacy, and 3) improve school staff resiliency.
Healthcare
- Diversifying the Health Care Workforce
Urban Institute
This project reflects a body of research on advancing racial equity in the healthcare workforce. Reports provide summaries of findings and recommendations in the areas of training, research, funding and professional development programs for key audiences, including state and federal policymakers. Also see:
- Diversifying the US Health Care Workforce Isn’t Enough on Its Own
- Improving and Expanding Programs to Support a Diverse Health Care Workforce: Recommendations for Policy and Practice — See Figure 1: Obstacles to Participation in the Medical and Nursing Workforces for Black/African American and Hispanic/Latinx People (pg. 3)
- Health Workforce Diversity Tracker / view launch announcement
Fitzhugh Mullan Institute for Health Workforce Equity at George Washington University
This interactive tool shows data on the diversity of 10 professional roles of the health workforce across the United States. It provides a workforce diversity index and pipeline diversity index for each state, and school data drilled down to the state’s educational institutions.
Other School Diversification Efforts & Lessons Learned
- Prioritizing Strategies to Racially Diversify the K–12 Teacher Workforce: Findings from the State of the American Teacher and State of the American Principal Surveys
RAND Corporation and National Education Association
Presents findings from the 2022 State of the American Teacher survey related to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity of the teacher workforce. Key findings and recommendations for recruiting, hiring and retaining teachers of color have applicability to diversifying the school health workforce. - Diversifying the Educator Workforce
Great Schools Partnership
Authored by members of the New England Secondary School Consortium, this report includes recommendations on the recruitment, hiring, supervision, retention and promotion of educators that are relevant to enhancing the school health pipeline. - Healthy Schools Can Mitigate Ongoing Racial Inequities in Education
Child Trends
Describes how schools can address six common education inequities (including a call for school staffing to reflect the diversity of today’s students), along with recommendations for education leaders and health partners that align with the goal of creating healthy schools.
View select federal and state policy opportunities that Healthy Schools Campaign and partners identified to consider in addressing school health workforce needs.
- Statement for the Record: Protecting Youth Mental Health
Healthy Schools Campaign
In 2022, HSC submitted policy recommendations to the Senate Finance Committee hearing on Protecting Youth Mental Health: Part II – Identifying and Addressing Barriers to Care. The remarks include solutions for addressing workforce shortages of school health providers, particularly behavioral health providers. - State Policy Opportunities: Advancing Comprehensive School Mental Health Systems to Support Students
Healthy Schools Campaign and Mental Health America
This report identifies policy opportunities along three system-building stages (establishing infrastructure and priorities, building structure and scale and promoting effective implementation) for states in addressing student mental health needs. Many of the recommendations, state examples and resources apply to expanding and diversifying the school health workforce.
View examples of state policy and practice efforts relevant to enhancing the school health pipeline.
- School Health Workforce Expansion and Diversification: State Spotlights
Healthy Schools Campaign
This resource highlights sample practice efforts from seven states to support strategies aimed at expanding and diversifying the school health workforce. - State Legislative Guide for School Mental Health
Hopeful Futures Campaign
This guide provides examples of state legislation pertaining to school mental health, including priorities for increasing mental health professionals in schools and expanding the school mental health workforce pipeline. - States Enhance Children’s Mental Health Services through Workforce Supports
National Academy for State Health Policy
This blog post summarizes laws addressing children’s mental health workforce shortages that were enacted by approximately 30 states in the first six months of 2022.
View select federal programs and agency news releases applicable to funding that can support expanding and diversifying the school health workforce. This document is periodically reviewed and updated.