The SEAL! Michigan program is an evidence-based, school-based dental sealant program that increases access to oral health by providing preventive services and oral health education to school-age children. It is administratively housed in the Division of Child and Adolescent Health and is supported by Title V funding and other funding sources. The SEAL! Michigan program is offered to schools with more than 50% of students enrolled in the Free and Reduced Lunch Program. Once a school meets the qualifications, the program is available to students with a positive consent form enrolled in the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th grades in lower Michigan, with the exception of Wayne County. All grades in Wayne County and the Upper Peninsula are served. The program includes an oral screening, placement of dental sealants on all erupted molar teeth, fluoride application, oral health education and referral for dental care.

Over the last three years (Fiscal Years 2018-2020), the SEAL! Michigan program provided 20,064 students with 19,274 fluoride varnish applications and 46,651 dental sealants. During the 2019-20 school year, the SEAL! Michigan program was comprised of nine partner sites with one additional site in a planning year to prepare to provide services in FY 2021. Four additional partners provide dental sealants in school settings through the SEAL! Of Approval program. In response to the COVID‐19 pandemic, schools and preventive dentistry were closed due to an executive order from March 21, 2020 to May 29, 2020. Thus, SEAL! Michigan programs were unable to serve students via school‐based care for several months.

While the pandemic may have disrupted school-based care, the SEAL! Michigan program worked hard to preserve dental health resources for students and families. Oral health packages were created for inclusion in free and reduced lunch distributions. The packages contained toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a message to remind families of proper daily oral hygiene habits that included not sharing toothbrushes and discarding toothbrushes after illness. This effort resulted in the distribution of 2,375 health packages with 9,200 toothbrushes to more than 25 school districts throughout Michigan.

To date, several oral health programs have been able to return to schools to deliver oral health services. Some programs unable to return to schools have provided services in an alternative delivery setting. For example, programs with a dental bus have set up in parking lots of local health departments (LHDs) or have provided dental sealants in the LHD dental clinic or Federally Qualified Health Center. To further adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic, all programs that can work in some capacity have been allowed to serve patients ages 1-21 and to treat both primary and permanent teeth, not just students in certain grades with only permanent teeth.

In 2020, the SEAL! Michigan program also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) to establish an oral health coordinator position that will promote the SEAL! Michigan program within the mobile dental programs assigned to DPSCD schools. This is a new position that will promote preventive dental services and education to over 40,000 DPSCD students.