I’ve written posts about Community Schools and how they can help engage families. Typically, community schools are ones that host multiple social services, as well as regular school classes.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius was the keynote speaker this week at a Philadelphia conference calling for more Community Schools.
Here are some excerpts from a Philadelphia Inquirer article about the conference and Community Schools:
Sebelius, the keynote speaker at the two day Coalition of Community Schools’ National Forum said school buildings should be a cornerstone of the community, housing health clinics, after school programs and family activities.
“These are tax paid institutions, we need to open them up,” Sebelius said. “Community schools will make it easier for families to access the service they need to succeed.”
“If a child is not healthy, they will not learn, they can not learn, they are not equipped to learn,” she said.
A reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act would create a $410 million “safe, healthier” grant program for schools.
The funding would expand the approximately 2,000 school-based health centers that servce more than 1 million children and adolescents across the country.