Helping School-Based Health Centers Reduce Asthma Attacks—and Keep Kids in School

Asthma is one of the leading causes of school absenteeism, and over 7 million children suffer from asthma throughout the United States. Even if asthma is medically managed with high-quality treatment and care, children who experience environmental asthma triggers in their home, school, and outdoor environments will continue to suffer.

Because of this, school-based health centers (SBHCs) are uniquely positioned to reduce environmental asthma triggers given their role linking the student, school, and home. That’s why PHI’s Regional Asthma Management and Prevention (RAMP) is increasing the number of SBHCs working to reduce environmental asthma triggers—supporting families in accessing health care, and helping kids stay healthier and in school.

RAMP has trained over 300 school-based health staff, provided tools to over 2,000 SBHCs, and provided funds and technical assistance to 27 SBHCs across the country—impacting over 8,000 educators in total. Participating SBHCs have gone on to successfully advocate for behavior changes and policy changes, resulting in reduced environmental asthma triggers in their schools and communities.

The program also developed the Asthma Environmental Interventions Guide for School-Based Health Centers and developed and disseminated 10 case studies to show what works.