Imagine a world where every child thrives, both in school and in health. Since 2019, Children’s National Hospital has championed this vision by teaming up with 14 children’s hospitals nationwide to implement a “School-Friendly Health Systems” initiative. This groundbreaking effort is based on the powerful notion that when health and education systems unite, extraordinary results are achieved. With 80% of health outcomes swayed by social factors, this initiative promises a brighter future for children.

Children’s National in partnership with dozens of health and education leaders across the country in diverse professional roles, to develop and apply a holistic organizing framework to hospitals’ relationship to their school partners. The result: The School-Friendly Health Systems framework, principles and roadmap – together a guide to help children achieve optimal health and reach their full academic potential (childrensnational.org/school-friendly).

In 2025, the School-Friendly Health Systems Learning Collaborative hosted a second six-part virtual meeting series to advance our learnings around health and education and develop additional tools for dissemination. Session topics and speakers included the following:

JANUARY 10, 2025 – Funding School Health Programs:

SFHS Learning Collaborative 6-Part Meeting Series Flyer

Jessie Mandle, Healthy Schools Campaign, Alonzo South, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia & Heidi Schumacher, Vermont Child Health Improvement Program

FEBRUARY 7, 2025 – School-Based Health Centers and School Nurse Programs: 

Marnell Dujour, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Chelcie Oseni and Cindy Hogg, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital & Julie Krueger, Children’s National Hospital

MARCH 7, 2025 – Data-Sharing Part 2 – Leveraging EMRs to Capture School Data:

Terri Iler and Megan Beckerle, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Danielle Dooley, Children’s National Hospital, Andrea Allen, DC Public Schools & Mona Mansour, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center

APRIL 4, 2025 – Implementing Telemedicine in Schools:

Shireen Atabaki and Andrea Boudreaux, Children’s National Hospital, Chelsea Moore, Children’s Hospital New Orleans & Desiree de la Torre, Children’s National Hospital

MAY 2, 2025 – Measuring Academic Outcomes in Programs and Policy Initiatives:

Mary Kay Irwin, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Tisha Coggin Clay, Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Lauren Porter and Tanvi Shah, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center & Bridget Clementi, Children’s Wisconsin

JUNE 6, 2025 – Communication Tools Showcase – SFHS Awareness Principle:

SFHS Learning Collaborative Members – St. Luke’s Health System, Vermont Child Health Improvement Program, Children’s Minnesota, UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center, Children’s National Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Children’s Wisconsin, Children’s Mercy Kansas City, Children’s Nebraska

I am inspired by seeing the potential of school health professionals to advance children’s health on a population level and recognizing that none of us can address the challenges to health equity in isolation. Thank you for providing these resources and opportunities to advance critical collaborations! – SFHS Chat and Chew Meeting Participant

We send gratitude to our SFHS Learning Collaborative members and partners for helping us make this series successful as we strive to improve health and educational outcomes for children across the nation.

The series was attended by 210 individuals from 32 organizations including 21 children’s hospitals. Summaries of the chat and chew meetings will be posted on the Children’s National School-Friendly Health Systems website this summer. The SFHS Learning Collaborative plans to reconvene in fall 2025 and is developing a toolkit to help other health systems strengthen and evaluate school programs and partnerships.

For more information on the SFHS Learning Collaborative, contact School Partnerships@childrensnational.org