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Purpose of the Health services Assessment Tool for Schools

High-quality school health services can improve student health and help to raise academic achievement. As such, developing and sustaining effective school health services is a core component of the mission of schools to equip students to lead healthy and productive adult lives.

The Health services Assessment Tool for Schools, or “HATS” for short, is designed to help school districts and states assess the quality and comprehensiveness of school health services, the level of infrastructure to support those services and the strength and implementation of school health services policies and protocols. The tool sets a "gold standard" benchmark for comprehensive school health services that districts and states can strive to achieve. It is intended as a self-assessment tool, not a way to evaluate school districts and/or states.

School districts and states can use this self-scoring online tool to identify areas of strength and weakness and track improvements over time. Completing this tool is an important first step toward evaluating and improving school health services policies, practices and infrastructure, with the ultimate goal of improving the health and well-being of all students.

TEAMS Testimonial

“I'm telling you that TEAMS was a turning point for our district...we pulled in local positions that had not been in the same room as the school nurses and we had the health department there and we all sat down and we went through it together. And although the pediatricians and the physicians in the room couldn't say, well, yeah, you guys do this because of this policy, what they could say is, well, this is the resource we use, that is our guide and this is the form that we use for this. So then there was more communication and so it was a great tool. It made a huge difference in how we worked with the physicians and the health department and how they understood where we came from and the resources that we use to guide our practice and what they look like.“

-Past TEAMS Program Participant/HATS user

 

Development of the HATS

The HATS was developed by the American Academy of Pediatrics as part of the Enhancing School Health Services through Training, Education, Assistance, Mentorship and Support (TEAMS) project with funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Experts from national organizations, school districts and health agencies partnered with the American Academy of Pediatrics in the creation of the HATS.

 

This webpage was supported by Cooperative Agreement Number NU38OT000282-04-00, funded by the Healthy Schools Branch - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the American Academy of Pediatrics and do not necessarily represent the official views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Last Updated

08/02/2022

Source

American Academy of Pediatrics