Senator bill frist, former education secretary john king, pennsylvania education secretary pedro rivera and Healthy Schools campaign ceo Rochelle Davis. This is an hour and 20 minutes. Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome all of you to the Bipartisan Policy Center. Im chief medical advisor here. The title of our event today is education in health, twin pillars for thriving students. Good to see you. For those of you new to bbc, our mission here is to actively seek, to take the best ideas from both political parties, to promote health, security, as well as opportunity for all americans. We drive principles and politically viable policy solutions through the power of analysis, negotiation and advocacy. Todays event focuses on the bidirectional impact of education and health. It is part of a project bpc is engaged in looking at quote unquote health in all policies, the idea that policies outside the Health Sphere in fact have a profound impact on health, and therefore Health Impacts should be a consideration for policy making in these areas. It is increasingly understood that education is an important determinant for health outcomes. In addition, its equally understood that Health Facilitates learning, and thus the Education Sector is equally interested in promoting Healthy Learning environments. Just last week, bpcs Early Childhood initiative hosted an event focused on physically safe and developmentally appropriate child care and Early Learning facilities so children can thrive. We are pleased this afternoon to have an extraordinary set of speakers to discuss todays topic as part of a Panel Discussion. To start us off, i would like to introduce Rochelle Davis. Rochelle is president and ceo of the Healthy Schools campaign. Rochelle will be providing some remarks for all of us. The Healthy Schools campaign is a co sponsor of todays event and has played a tremendous role nationally in leading effective ontheground programs and influencing policy. Rochelle has long been an advocate and leader for childrens health, environMental Health. Earlier in her career and School Health over the last two decades. Following her remarks we will vint our panelists for we will invite our panelists to the stage with a discussion and followed by audience questionandanswer. This event is being streamed live online and the recording will be available next week. We also thank viewers on cspan 2 watching today. Welcome to all of you. With this, i would like to ask Rochelle Davis to come to the podium. She will take us away. Rochelle . [applause] thank you and to the Bipartisan Policy Center for partnering with us and thanks to all of you for being here, both in person, through the web cast and on cspan for this really important conversation. At Healthy Schools campaign, our work is based on the very simple and common sense notion that healthy students are better learners. Since 2002, we have worked in chicago and across the country to advocate for policies and practices that ensure that all children no matter their race, ethnicity or Family Income can attend healthy, safe and Supportive Schools. Healthy schools can provide positively impact students all around well being, build a Solid Foundation for learning and help address the health and educational disparities impacting our most vulnerable children. This work is more important than ever. Over the past two decades, the prevalence of chronic conditions that impact students ability to be in school and ready to learn, such as, asthma, diabetes, and obesity has doubled from 1 in 8 to 1 in 4 children. And more and more children suffer from a range of Mental Health issues, like anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and adhd. 1 in 5 children has a diagnosable Mental Health problem and nearly 2 3 of them get little or no help. These conditions disproportionately impact low income africanamerican, latino and immigrant children from disinvested and marginalized communities. These children disproportionately suffer from a lack of access to healthcare and attend schools with less access to physical activity, higher exposure to environmental toxins in the air and water and fewer schoolbased health services. Compounding these challenges, many of the same children also live in areas that are less likely to have space for safe outdoor play, and many students come to schools suffering the impact of food and security or trauma. The impact of poor Childhood Health compounded by disparities in access to healthcare and Supportive School environments reverberate throughout a childs life. A student who is mal nourished or living with unmanaged physical or Mental Health condition will have more problems concentrating in class and miss more school days than a healthy student. Children who are chronically absent, as early as preschool, kindergarten, or first grade are much less likely to be reading at grade level by third grade. And students who cannot read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school. Research increasingly supporting a link between educational success and longterm health outcomes. In other words, investing in education is essential to supporting a healthy population. And an educated and healthy population is essential to a vibrant and strong america. So lets for a moment imagine what it would look like if every student in this country attended a school that supports Student Health and school wellness, as a foundation for learning. In a healthy school, teachers are given the resources and training to support students overall well being and build a safe and Supportive School climate. Parents are welcomed into the School Community and their knowledge and leadership are valued. The school gives students access to healthy food, physical activity, and clean air and water. These are not things we can take for granted. The school actively teaches students to make healthy choices that allow them to thrive, and physical and mental and behavioral healthcare is available. In a healthy school, students learn through lessons and through example to value their own health. Healthy Schools Campaign has worked in chicago and nationally to make this vision a reality. In chicago, we have engaged parent leaders, teachers, and principals and help them advocate at the district level for healthier school food and the return of physical education and recess to the school day. And we have helped schools transform paved over school yards into vibrant green spaces for play and learning. We see many many amazing initiatives and programs in chicago and across the country. We applaud the school staff, families and partners who have made these changes happen. The challenge is making these changes scalable and sustainable. To do that, we need systems level change, including ensuring that schools, especially those serving students with the greatest needs have Adequate Funding including the resources necessary to support Healthy Learning. Providing schools with the knowledge and tools to understand the health needs of their students, implement appropriate policies and programs and build the partnerships they need and incorporating health and wellness into education metrics and accountability systems so that it is prioritized and funded. Now, fortunately, we are at a moment that offers several opportunities to overcome some longstanding system level barriers. The nations new education law, the every student succeed act, or essa, has given states new opportunities to address Student Health and school wellness. For example, under essa, all state School Report cards must now include chronic absence rates which can be a very powerful proxy measure of Student Health and school wellness. In addition, 36 states have included this as part of their States Educational accountability systems. They are leveraging these new opportunities. For one example since i only have a few more minutes, a School District in tennessee it was hard to pick which one. Okay . [laughter] a School District in tennessee is using funding from essa to support their School Nurses efforts to track why students are absent. This allows the district to get a more complete picture of the problem and identify ways to address it. And the Education Sector increasingly has a powerful partner in the health sector, which recognizes that health is driven by more than what happens in a doctors office. Recently trinity health, which operates in 22 states, announced that it will require all of its hospitals to include chronic absence in their Community Health needs assessments. Also this year the American Academy of pediatrics released a policy statement highlighting the role that pediatricians can play in addressing chronic absence. With them adding chronic absences into their data systems, we have created a new opportunity for alignment and partnerships. Another opportunity to address a longstanding barrier that schools have faced is some recent changes in medicaid. States now have the opportunity to allow School Districts to be reimbursed for a much wider range of Services Provided to medicaidenrolled students. We are partnering with trust for Americas Health to lead a 15state learning collaborative so that schools will be able to access medicaid dollars to pay for School Nurses, counselors, social workers, and other Crucial Health services. States are beginning to take advantage of this opportunity. It is important to recognize that these are opportunities, not mandates, for states and communities to address Student Health and school wellness. There is much work still to be done at the federal and state level to support schools and communities to create the conditions that will allow all children to thrive. That is why the leadership of our panelists on these issues and the efforts of all of you who have joined us today are so important. This event provides an important chance for us to explore how to be successful in building healthy and Supportive School environments so all children can learn and thrive. Thank you. [applause] rochelle, thank you for those opening remarks. I think that sets the stage beautifully for our Panel Discussion today. I do want to take the first maybe couple of minutes and just provide a brief biography sketch of our three panelists that i think most of you know them as public servants, but just so you understand their perspective. To my left center bill frist is a heart and Lung Transplant surgeon and former u. S. Senate majority leader as you know. Senator frist represented tennessee in the u. S. Senate. For 12 years and was elected majority leader in 2003. His service on the Senate Health committee responsible for all federal education policy later inspired him to found score, state collaborative on education to propel tennessee as a k 12 education state. Hes currently a bpc senior fellow and led many Health Initiatives here over the last decade. Thank you for being here. Thank you. John king jr. Is the president and ceo of the education trust, a National Nonprofit organization that seeks to identify and close opportunity and achievement gaps from preschool to college. He served in president obamas cabinet as the tenth u. S. Secretary of education. He joined the Department Following his tenure as the first africanamerican and puerto rican to serve as new york States Education commissioner. He began his career in education as a High School Social studies teacher in puerto rico and boston massachusetts and as a middle school principal. Secretary, thank you very much for being here. And secretary rivera was appointed as pennsylvania secretary of education by Governor Wolf in 2015. Currently secretary rivera also serves as the president of the board of directors for the council of chief state school officers, a Nonpartisan Organization of Public Officials who head state departments of elementary and secondary education. Prior to his appointment to Governor Wolfs cabinet, he served as superintendent of the School District of lancaster. Additionally he was a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal and executive director for the School District of philadelphia as well as a staff member with the Philadelphia Federation of teachers. Thank you again for all three of you being here. I think you heard from rochelle, her perspective how important this bidirectional impact is between health and education, and i thought it might be helpful to start based on your experiences just to share why is this so important and where are you seeing signs of progress across the country . Senator . Thank you. Rochelle, thank you for your remarks. It really set the stage beautifully. 12 years ago, i was in the United States senate, and after being here for a period of 12 years, and having the opportunity to be involved in no child left behind on the health committee, when i came back to tennessee, i knew a couple of things. This as being a doctor, wearing the doctor hat first, that if somebody has a college degree, four years of continuing education, after the secondary school, that they will live 5. 3 years longer than somebody who doesnt graduate from high school. I knew at the time that if somebody spent four additional years of any kind of education after secondary school education, that they would have less heart disease, that they would have less diabetes, that they would live longer, the five years coming after that, and they would have less heart disease, less diabetes, less obesity, but we didnt know then quite as much but weve developed the Science Behind that gathered the evidence that when you look at health and healthcare, and how long somebody lives, the infant mortality, burden of disease, whatever it is, that it is not the doctor in me or the doctor in you that determines how whatever that measure is, outcome of health, but twice or three times more important than the doctor or the type of insurance or the hospital are these social determinants. What we have learned is that education is a primary social determinant for health. So we have healthcare over here. We have education here. What were talking about today is that nexus of the two. There is not just correlations but there ease causality but theres causality involved. Thats how i got involved initially and weve stayed on it ever since. Great. Secretary . Let me take it to the simplest level of the student. When i was a middle school principal, i recall we had a student who had chronic asthma. And he would miss a lot of school as a result of the asthma. But our school was in a building that was shared with a nursing home, and when we get a nebulizer set up for him in the nursing home that he could access, he went from missing a lot of school to being in school regularly. His grades went up. He was a happier student. His family was happier, by just having access to quality healthcare made the difference for his educational outcomes. So the thing im encouraged by is i do think theres a growing Awareness Among states and School Districts that as educators we have to be thoughtful about how we Better Connect kids and families to quality healthcare services. Three quick examples. Theres a partnership between Childrens Defense Fund and the Superintendents Association to use the School Enrollment process as an opportunity to talk with families about their enrollment in healthcare, whether thats medicaid or chip or one of the Healthcare Options on the exchanges or personal health insurance, but making sure that families are attentive to their kids having access to healthcare. Thats one. Two, we see and we heard about this in the discussion of essa, we se