The Florida Department (Department) of Health’s priorities during the application year include:

• Improve dental care access for children and pregnant women (State Performance Measure [SPM] 2: The percentage of low-income children under age 21 who access dental care).
• Address the social determinants of health that influence the relationship between health status and biology, individual behavior, health services, social factors, and policies (SPM 3: The percentage of parents who read to their young child age 0-5 years).
• Promote activities to improve the health of children and adolescents and promote participation in extracurricular and/or out-of-school activities in a safe and healthy environment (National Performance Measure 8.1: Percent of children, ages 6 through 11, who are physically active at least 60 minutes per day).

The School Health Services Program will continue to fulfill statutory, regulatory, and Department mandates to ensure the provision of school health services to children in all of Florida’s public and participating nonpublic schools. CHDs, in cooperation with local education agencies and other partners, will work to ensure Florida’s 2.8 million pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students have access to health services that assess, protect, and promote their health and ability to learn. 

The School Health Program services are available to Florida public school students in all counties. This includes: nursing assessments; student health record reviews to ensure physical exam and immunization requirements meet statutory requirements; health services for chronic or complex health conditions requiring school-day management; first aid; medication administration; screening, referral and follow-up for vision, hearing, scoliosis and growth and development; preventive oral health programs; healthy lifestyle nursing interventions; emergency health services; health education classes; parent and staff consultations on student health issues; case management; and consultation for placement of students in exceptional student education programs.

The Department and the Florida Health Department of Education (DOE) partnered and promoted implementation of the Coordinated School Health approach in Florida public schools. The Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention worked with the DOE’s Office of Healthy Schools to support the Florida Partnership for Healthy School District self-assessment and recognition program. The Department’s School Health Program will continue to develop collaborative partnerships with the Florida DOE, Office of Healthy Schools, DOE Office of Safe Schools, Bureau of Exceptional Education and Student Services, Florida Partnership for Healthy Schools. These partnerships promote implementation of the CDC’s Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model in Florida’s school districts and provide professional development for registered school nurses. The WSCC model is an evidence-based approach to advance the development of state, district, and school infrastructures which promote and maintain health and wellness for students, families, communities and school staff, and support student academic achievement.

Title V Maternal and Child Health (MCH) Block Grant funding has been consistently used to establish new School-Based Sealant Programs (S-BSPs) in Florida as well as expand existing sustainable programs to serve more children. These evidence-based programs increase access and reduce barriers to preventive dental care for low-income children in Title I schools, Early Head Start, Head Start, Early Learning Coalition centers, and Women Infant and Child (WIC) sites. For Fiscal Year (FY) 2021-2022, the Title V MCH Block Grant funded ten counties to expand their programs to reach additional schools and children. These counties were Alachua, DeSoto, Highlands, Homes, Jackson, Marion, Pinellas, St. Lucie, Volusia, and Walton. Beginning July 2022, the Public Health Dental Program (PHDP) will collect aggregate data and information on the S-BSPs number of children served, schools visited, services provided, and other programmatic information for FY 21-22.  For FY 22-23, Title V MCH Block Grant funds will continue to fund the expansion of existing programs. Seven programs will receive funding during FY 22-23. These programs are Clay, Broward, Columbia, Lake, Levy, Okaloosa, Orange. Some programs, such as Broward, Clay, and Lake, will use the funds to restart their programs after being closed. Columbia, Levy, Okaloosa, and Orange will use the funds to expand their programs to full capacity and provide more services to more children.

The PHDP will continue to provide Florida S-BSPs with quality improvement and assurance guidance, technical assistance, and training to ensure local program efficiencies and increased capacity of children served through these programs. To promote S-BSPs to children, and increase positive consent rates from parents, the PHDP will distribute educational resources such as stickers, window clings, postcards, and workbooks that provide education on maintaining good oral health and encourage the discussion with parents on promoting oral hygiene at the home. The PHDP established the Sealant Work Group in partnership with Oral Health Florida to address the quality of S-BSP services by facilitating meetings and conducting regional trainings. These trainings assist S-BSPs with improving their sustainability and increasing the number of children served and preventive services provided. For FY 22-23, the Sealant Work Group will be providing a training in the Central and South regions of the state.

During the coming year, grant funds will be used to support the continued development and enhancement of the PHDP’s Florida’s Linked Oral Status System (FLOSS) Database. The PHDP will continue to increase statewide data capacity and serve as the state’s S-BSP data warehouse across all agencies through the FLOSS Database. Participation in the FLOSS Database, especially for outside entities, will be encouraged through the Sealant Work Group. In addition, the PHDP will be collecting data using FLOSS for the ongoing FY 21-22 Third Grade Oral Screening and the FY 22-23 Ninth Grade Oral Screening Project. The PHDP, in collaboration with the Florida Dental Hygienists’ Association, will conduct screenings in 20 elementary schools for the third-grade project and 56 high schools for the ninth-grade project.

The Department is supporting all 67 CHDs for the Florida Healthy Babies program. The purpose of the program is to improve one of six MCH outcomes by addressing broad social, economic, cultural, and environmental factors that impact access to care. The six priority areas were identified based on the Statewide Needs Assessment, State Health Improvement Plan, Agency Strategic Plan, MCH Program National Performance Measures, and Healthy People 2030. The priority areas are:

• Infant Mortality
• Maternal Mortality 
• Dental and Oral Health 
• Prevention of Unexpected Pregnancy   
• Well Women Care 
• Access to Care

The CHDs implement the Florida Healthy Babies program by providing evidence-based services resulting from a local needs assessment, ongoing quality improvement processes, and collaboration with community partners. An example of a Florida Healthy Babies service is the Reach out and Read (ROR) program. The ROR program is an evidence-based early intervention model that encourages literacy and school readiness. ROR gives young children a foundation for success by incorporating books into pediatric care and encourages families to read aloud together. ROR medical providers encourage families to read aloud and engage with their infants, toddlers, and preschoolers every day. This program focuses on creating a reading rich environment in waiting room areas such as a child’s reading table and chairs, a bookshelf, children’s books, etc.

The Violence and Injury Prevention Section, along with MCH colleagues, will continue to participate in the Motor Vehicle Traffic Safety (MVTS) and Suicide and Self Harm Prevention (SSHP) cohorts of the Child Safety Learning Collaborative (CSLC). The CSLC builds Title V capacity through technical assistance to cross-state, child safety topic teams by using data to inform decision making and applying quality improvement and innovation methods to sustainably implement and spread evidence-based strategies statewide.

The Department’s Mental Health liaison conducted listening sessions with CHDs consortiums to identify priorities and needs in communities. To follow up on this information, a survey will be disseminated Department wide to identify service accessibility and availability, treatment availability, mental wellness promotion, needs and service gaps, collaborations, and staff training needs. The Department has also published a Mental Health website, including subsections for mental health and anxiety-reducing resources, trainings, profiles and dashboards, and information on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs).