Report 2019-125 Recommendation 6 Responses

Report 2019-125: Youth Suicide Prevention: Local Educational Agencies Lack the Resources and Policies Necessary to Effectively Address Rising Rates of Youth Suicide and Self‑Harm (Release Date: September 2020)

Recommendation #6 To: Public Health, Department of

To support LEAs' efforts to provide mental health services, Public Health should establish the support program for school health centers as state law requires. If Public Health lacks the funding to do so, it should request additional funds as needed. The support program should assist LEAs in establishing school health centers and in identifying and applying for available funding as authorized by law, such as Medi-Cal reimbursement and MHSA funds.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From September 2023

Over the past year, the California Department of Public Health (Public Health) continued to learn about the needs of School-Based Health Centers (SBHC) and provided limited technical assistance and data support by leveraging available resources (the Federal Preventive Health and Health Services Block Grant) to support one staff position. Two new positions have been established utilizing Future of Public Health funding, to expand the technical assistance and data collection activities, however there was no funding available to support a program of this size. Public Health has discussed the opportunity for existing SBHC's to bill Medi-Cal and explored this as part of the California Advancing and Innovating Medi-Cal effort, but any resources that would come of both would need to be accessed directly by the SBHC and could not be used to establish a program in Public Health. Therefore, no funding opportunities have been identified to fully establish and administer the Public School Health Center Support Program as required by law. Public Health continues to look for funding opportunities but some options being explored are through the state budget process and are confidential.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022

Public Health continues to learn about the health care needs of students from the School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA) and evaluate the resources needed to develop a Public School Health Center Support Program. However, no funding opportunities have been identified to establish the program.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: No Action Taken

We encourage Public Health to request the funds necessary to establish this support program, as we describe in our recommendation.

1-Year Agency Response

CDPH continues to research opportunities to implement the Public-School Health Center Support Program. Unfortunately, to-date there are no federal or state funding opportunities available.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: No Action Taken

6-Month Agency Response

CDPH is continuing to assess the resources necessary to implement the Public School Health Center Support Program.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: No Action Taken

60-Day Agency Response

Since 2017, CDPH has been working to support the School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA) in their efforts to assess and address the health service needs of youth. Specifically, CDPH completed an assessment of technical assistance and resource needs for California school-based health centers; completed the Best Practices for State Program Offices report based on key informant interviews with other states; produced a Resource Guide for School-Based Health Centers; sponsored three School-Based Health Alliance conferences; provided trainings on school-based health centers to CDPH programs, and completed a school-based health center data matrix.

CDPH recognizes that more work is necessary to fully establish and implement the Public School Health Center Support Program (PSHCSP). Over the next six months, CDPH will evaluate the resources necessary to establish and implement the PSHCSP, as written in the Health and Safety Code section 124174-124174.6.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

As we state in the report, Public Health has gathered some information that could inform the development of the required program. However, the law requires the program to perform a variety of functions including providing technical assistance to LEAs and other entities on a number of subjects, providing biennial updates to Legislative Committees, and--to the extent funds are appropriated to do so--collecting data from school based health centers on an ongoing basis. We look forward to reviewing Public Health's progress toward establishing the support program and fulfilling these duties, as required by law, in its 6-month response.

All Recommendations in 2019-125

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.