Pennsylvania education secretary pedro rivera appear Healthy Schools campaign ceo Rochelle Davis in this discussion. Well, good morning, everyone want to welcome all the title is education and health twin pillars for driving students. Good to see all of you. For those of you new to bpc the mission is to actively seek and take the best ideas from both parties to health, security as well as opportunity for all americans. We try principles and politically viable old policy solution 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 involved in health and all policies. The idea that policies outside the healthcare have a profound impact on health and therefore Health Impact should be a consideration for policymaking in these areas. To this and it is understood that education is important for health outcomes. In addition, it is a that facilitates learning and is the Education Sector is equally interested in promoting Healthy Learning environment. Just last week the Early Childhood initiative hosted an event on physically safe the children can thrive. We are pleased this afternoon to have an extraordinary set of speakers to discuss the 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 campaign. She will be providing remarks for all of us. The campaign is a cosponsor today and it has played a tremendous role nationally and effective on the Ground Program influencing policy. She has long been an advocate for Childrens Health from Environmental Health early in her career to school the last few decades. Following her remarks will invite our panels to pay for a discussion which will be followed by audience question and answer. As a reminder this event is being streamed live online and a recording will be available next week. We also think viewers watching today. Was that i would like to ask her to come to the podium and you can take away. To hotel thank you and the Bipartisan Policy Center for partnering with us and thank you to all of you for been here in person, through the webcast and on c span for this important conversation. Healthy Schools Campaign our work is focused on the 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 practices that ensure that all children no matter their race, ethnicity or Family Income can attend healthy, safe and Supportive SchoolsHealthy Schools can provide positively impact students all around will be 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 few decades the problems of chronic conditions that in students ability to be in school and ready to learn such as asthma, diabetes in obese he has double from one in a to one in four children. More and more children suffer from a range of Mental Health issues like anxiety, depression, Substance Abuse and adhd. One in five children has diagnosable Mental Health problem and nearly 2 3 of them get little or no help these conditions disproportionately impact low incomehis 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 School Based Health services. Compact 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 school suffering the impact of Food Insecurity or trauma. The impact of poor child had health compounded by disparities and access to healthcare and Supportive School environment liberates throughout a childs life. A student who is malnourished or living with an unmanaged physical or Mental Health condition will have more problems concentrating in class and miss more school days than help the 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. Students who cannot read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely to drop out of heist. Research increasingly supports the link between educational success and longterm health outcome. In other words, investing in education is essential for 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 wellness as a foundation for learning. In a healthy schoolteachers are given the resources and training to support students overall wellbeing and build a safe and Supportive School climate. Parents are welcomed into the School Community and they are knowledge and leadership is valued. The School Students access to healthy food, physical activity and clean air and water and these are not things we can take for granted. School actively teaches students to make healthy choices and allow them to thrive and physical and Mental Behavioral Health care is available and in a healthy School Students learn through lessons and examples to value their own health. Healthy Schools Campaign has worked in chicago and nationally to make this vision a reality. In chicago engaged parent leaders teachers and principals and help them advocate at the district level for help your school food and the return of physical education and recess to the school day and we have helped transform paved over schoolyards into vibrant green spaces for play and learning. We have seen many many amazing initiatives and programs in chicago and across the country. We applauded 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 helpmate of their students, implement appropriate policies and programs and build the partnerships they need and incorporating health and wellness education metrics accountability system so it is prioritized and funded. Fortunately, we are at a moment that offers several opportunities to overcome some long standing level barriers. The new education law, the every student succeed act has given states more opportunity to address Student Health and school wellness, for example, under essa all report cards must include chronic absences which can be a powerful measure of Student Health and school wellness. In addition 36 states have included chronic absent rates as part of the educational accountability system. States and School Districts are leveraging these new opportunities for one example since i only have a few more minutes, a School District it was hard to pick which one. A School District in tennessee is using funding essa to support School Nurses effort to track why students are absent. This allows the district to get a more complete picture of a problem and identify ways to address it. The Education Sector increasingly have a powerful helper which recognizes that health is driven by more than what happens at a doctors office. Recently Trinity Health announces they will require all of the hospitals to include chronic absence in their Community Health needs assessment. Also this year the American Academy of pediatrics released a policy statement highlighting the role that pediatricians can play in addressing chronic absence. With the education and Health Sectors both integrating chronic absenteeism into their metrics and data systems we have really created a new opportunity for alignment and partnership. Another opportunity to address a longstanding barrier that schools have faith his recent changes in medicaid. States have the opportunity to allow School Districts to be reimbursed for a much wider range of services needing a 15 state collaborative so the schools will be able to access the medicaid dollars to pay for School Nurses, counselors, social workers and other crucial services. States are beginning to take advantage of this opportunity. It is important to recognize these are opportunities not mandates. 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 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. Think you. Thank you for those opening remarks and i think that sets the stage beautifully for the Panel Discussion today. I want to take may be the first couple of minutes and provide a brief biography sketch of our three panelists i think most of you know them as Public Servants but just so you understand their perspective. Bill is a heart and Lung Transplant surgeon and former u. S. Senate majority leader and senator fritz represented tennessee for 12 years and was elected majority leader in 2003. His service helped committee responsible for all federal education policy later inspired him to found score to propel tennessee to prominence through k12 education. He is currently chairman of tennessee as you are thank you for coping here. John king junior is the president and ceo secretary king served in president obama is cabinet is the 10th the secretary of education. He joined the Department Following his tenure as the first africanamerican to serve as new york state education commissioner. He began his career in education at the High School Social studies teacher in puerto rico and came as a medical middle School Principal. Currently secretary rivera serves as president of the board of directors for the council of state officers and it is a Nonpartisan Organization public official who had state departments of elementary and secondary education. Prior to his appointment he served as superintendent of the School District at lancaster additionally he was a classroom teacher, assistant principal, principal and director for the state. Thank you for all three of you being here and if you heard from rochelle how important this impact is for might be helpful based on your experiences why is this so important and where do you see signs of progress across the country western mark thank you and rochelle, thank you you set the stage beautifully. 12 years ago i was in the senate and after a period of 12 years i had the opportunity to be involved in no child left behind and i came back a couple of things. If somebody has a College Degree or four years of continuing education after secondary school that they will live 5. 3 years longer than someone who doesnt graduate from high. I knew at the time that if someone spent 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 if they would live longer the five years coming after that and they would have and we have developed the Science Behind and gather the evidence and when you look at health and healthcare and how long someone lives or burden of disease, whatever it is that it is not the doctrine me or the doctrine you that determines whatever that measure is the outcome of health, but twice or three times more important are the social determinants and what we have learned is that education is a primary social determinants for health. We have healthcare over here and what we are talking about is the nexus of the two. This is how i initially got involved. Take it to the simplest level of the student. I was a middle School Principal i had a student who had chronic asthma and he would miss a lot of school as a result of the asthma and the school was in a building that was shared with the nursing home so when we got 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 and his grades went up and he was a happier student and his family was happier by just having access to quality healthcare made the difference for his educational outcome. The thing im encouraged by his there is a growing Awareness Among states and School Districts that as an educator we have to be thoughtful about how we connect kids and families to quality healthcare. Three quick examples. A partnership between Childrens Defense Fund and Superintendent Association to use the School Enrollment process as an opportunity to talk with families about their enrollment and healthcare whether it is medicaid or chip or one of the Healthcare Options on the exchange for personal health insurance. Making sure that families are attentive for their children having access to healthcare. Two, we see and we heard about this in the discussion we have states paying attention to chronic absenteeism and they are noticing that data points and using that to translate into action whether that is connecting families with Healthcare Providers or addressing homelessness or insecurity or addressing Food Insecurity that a family might be experiencing or helping them strategize transportation. Third example is around food. One of the key things that has made a positive difference all over the country is the free and reduced price lunch. Many kids that is the best meal of the day. Many schools dont have a universal breakfast program. Many schools and communities are working hard to access food in the summer. Less than 20 during the school year access meals during the summer, but we can do better. Some communities do food trucks in the community so that kids have easy access to food. There is also a Pilot Project at the department of agriculture putting additional dollars on the electronic interface card so that families can access meals over the summer and we know that program is working well and increase the likelihood that kids have access. There is a lot of evidence that people are paying more attention. We need to get some of the policy barriers out of their way and also as michelle talked about work to scale some of the solutions. Doing a great job taking off identifying the social determinants. One of the things the government to do well is setting commissions for success reduce the conditions by which neighbors and institutions i understood that if i really wanted to help others improving the quality and building we couldnt focus on the traditional learning without deal with issues of homelessness and have physical health needs. Somewhere the most with quality supports around those needs. A teacher at a smallscale something as simple as providing laundry cards or meals in the classroom or tokens for public transportation. For better support and i have started to become committed and focusing on those areas so as a School Administrator and ultimately as a district administrator and a secretary continue to look at opportunities to expand that and more importantly solicit other partners that can help better serve our students. Now i secretary the secretary of agriculture at the state level and department of corrections or labor and industry. I know we will get a little deeper, understanding that we have the responsibility and the opportunity to set conditions for practitioners every day by working together to ensure we have a direct narrative around why we