Can Medicaid Boost School-Based Health Services?

The pandemic highlighted and exacerbated the growing health challenges, particularly in behavioral health, faced by today’s youth. Since 56 million children and youth spend a quarter of their day in school, there’s been a growing need for comprehensive support within educational settings.

Under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) are launching Year 2 of a joint initiative to promote school-based services through a Medicaid School-Based Services (SBS) Technical Assistance Center (TAC). Econometrica, Inc., was selected as the prime contractor to support this TAC, with Westat serving as one of three key subcontractors.

The Medicaid SBS TAC is planning a new series of national webinars and virtual events for 2024 and 2025. This series currently includes:

• September 19, 2024: Reviewing a Year of Progress in Medicaid SBS
• November 14, 2024: Medicaid and CHIP Funding for School Preventive Behavioral Health Services
• January 16, 2025: Implementing Mental Health Initiatives in Schools
• February 13, 2025: Best Practices for Billing and Documentation for Common Medicaid SBS
• March 20, 2025: Unique Needs of Frontier/Remote/Rural Communities and LEAs in School-Based Health
• May 8, 2025: Children with Complex Health Care Needs (CCHCN) and Medicaid SBS

Anyone can register to attend these webinars. Please contact SchoolBasedServices@cms.hhs.gov to be added to the distribution list for registration information. In addition, SMAs and SEAs will be invited to attend working discussions to support their State initiatives around Medicaid SBS. You can read the full press release here, and for more information about Medicaid SBS and the TAC see Medicaid & School Based Services.