New report shows concerning rise in obesity rates among LAUSD students

Changes from 2018-2022

The Los Angeles Trust for Children's Health has released a comprehensive Data xChange Impact Report for the school year of 2021-2022, providing valuable insights into the impact of Wellness Centers and school-based health centers (SBHCs) in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). These centers play a crucial role in delivering essential health services to students, families, and community members, underscoring their commitment to health equity and inclusivity.

Since 2015, The Data xChange has experienced a remarkable expansion, with the number of its medical clinics more than doubling. Today that number includes 15 Wellness Centers and 8 other school-based health centers located in underserved communities. The system has grown and for good reason. Over the years, the Wellness Centers and SBHCs have been instrumental in providing care to over 300,000 patients through nearly 900,000 visits. Serving as a medical home for many students, these centers focus on prevention, education, early intervention, and screening to promote well-being and academic achievement.

Wellness Centers and School-Based Health Centers at LAUSD.

Despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the centers have witnessed an encouraging increase in the number of visits, returning to pre-pandemic levels last year. However, the report highlights a concerning rise in diagnoses of being overweight or obese, emphasizing the need to address associated health risks.

While there has been a decline in visits for contraceptive management, which reflects a nationwide trend influenced by the pandemic, the report notes a significant increase in chlamydia screening, underscoring the centers' commitment to addressing critical aspects of sexual health.

The report also emphasizes the importance of dental care services provided by the centers. Poor oral health has been linked to chronic diseases in adults and academic difficulties among students. With over 175,000 dental care visits since 2015, these centers are bridging the gap in access to dental care.

The patient demographics indicate that Latinx patients form the largest proportion, mirroring the composition of LAUSD's student population. The Wellness Centers extend their care to not just students but also families and community members, with a higher proportion of female visitors compared to males.

Changes in the proportion of all visits for specific types of services from 2018-2019 to the 2021-2022 school year.

Additionally, the data reveals a concerning increase in diagnoses of anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), particularly among community members. This aligns with the national trend of rising anxiety, depression, and substance use.

The findings of this report underscore the crucial and irreplaceable role that Wellness Centers and SBHCs play in delivering comprehensive healthcare services. These centers are deeply committed to ensuring health equity and refusing to leave anyone behind. They have become a cornerstone of healthcare and a reliable source of support within the highest need areas of Los Angeles.

About the Data xChange

The Data xChange is guided by an Expert Advisory Council that includes representatives from the following organizations: Children Now, Community Clinic Association of LA County, Community Coalition, Community Health Councils, First 5 Los Angeles, Inner City Struggle, Kaiser Permanente, L.A. Care Health Plan, LAUSD Student Health & Human Services, LAUSD Office of Data & Accountability, Prevention Institute, The Children’s Health Partnership and The Advancement Project.

Wellness Center report cards show improvements

School-based administrators, clinicians, and student health advocates from Los Angeles school-based Wellness Centers shared best practices for student health.

This past October The L.A. Trust hosted the Wellness Network Learning Collaborative conference at the California Endowment in Downtown Los Angeles. It was the first in-person conference in two years, and administrators, clinicians, and student health advocates were excited to see each other away from the computer monitor. The semi-annual event focused on sharing best practices for increasing student health across L.A. Unified.

Spotlight on SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment)

The highlight of the Learning Collaborative featured Dr. Barth-Rogers, chief medical officer of the UMMA Wellness Center at Fremont High School in South Los Angeles. She provided an update on the UMMA Clinic’s best practices in harm-reduction and incorporating SBIRT through the Wellness & Adolescent Substance Use Prevention (WASUP) Project. Dr. Barth-Rogers said, “I think collecting the data is one of the most challenging aspects of the screening process, and we are still improving.” She continued, “At UMMA, it's really important for us as an organization to have accurate and reliable data, and we are constantly monitoring the data to make improvements.”

Wellness Center Report Cards

L.A. Unified’s Dr. Ron Tanimura, Director of Student Medical Services, provided an update on the 17 Wellness Centers with an aggregated report card that showed a 63% increase in overall student visits. Each Wellness Center representative pored over reports on their Wellness Centers’ data provided by The L.A. Trust’s Data xChange for the school year 2021-2022. Data included statistics on unique patient visits, services provided, demographics and more. Dr. Tanimura led the discussion on Wellness Center metrics and discussed the history and future of the Wellness Network. He thanked The L.A. Trust for gathering and presenting these metrics and emphasized the importance of reliable data. “We can’t tell a story without this type of data.”

Feedback and discussion on the Wellness Report Cards was led by LAUSD’s Gloria Velasquez, Organization Facilitator for Student Medical Services and Alex Zepeda, Senior Data & Research Analyst at the L.A. Trust. Marsha Ellis, Director of Programs from The L.A. Trust and Victor Luna, Organization Facilitator, LAUSD helped round out the meeting by clarifying the process for the School Integration Tool.

Moving Forward

Senior Policy Manager, Gabby Tilley brought some clarity on the legislative landscape for school-based health centers. Maryjane Puffer, Executive Director for The L.A. Trust, provided updates on what to expect in the coming months with ongoing initiatives, including the Youth Mental Health Collaborative, Data xChange expansion, Rapid Adolescent Prevention Screening (RAAPS) and the Oral Health Initiative. 

Attendees were excited to see friends and colleagues in person after more than two years. The group came together for student health and were inspired by the work that has been done and invigorated by the work that still needs to be done. We look forward to the next Wellness Network Learning Collaborative in June 2023. See you there!

New research highlights success of school-based health centers

Patients visit three times a year on average, showing they consider these clinics a trusted source of care.

The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health has published a comprehensive new Data xChange report illustrating the impact of School Based Health Centers (SBHC) on students, families and community members in L.A. Unified’s disadvantaged areas. During the COVID pandemic, L.A. Unified’s full-service Wellness Centers have proven essential for providing access to preventive health and mental health care services where little to no resources existed before.

In the 2020-2021 school year, the number of clinics participating in the L.A. Trust Data xChange grew from 11 to 20. In the past six years, Wellness Centers and other LAUSD School-Based Health Centers have provided care to 188,666 unique patients through 615,031 visits. Patients visit three times a year on average, showing they consider these clinics a trusted source of care.

Wellness Centers are specifically designed to serve not just students, but their families and community members, too. These clinics serve a diverse population and are deeply committed to health equity —they turn away no one. Latinx patients made up the largest proportion of patients over the past six years. This reflects LAUSD’s student population —73% of students enrolled in LAUSD schools in the 2020-21 school year were Latinx. Wellness Centers provide intergenerational care to families and community members, while SBHCs primarily serve students ages 5-19.

Coping with COVID-19

Nine clinics remained opened throughout the pandemic and have served 32,000 patients with a total of 104,000 visits.  From March 2020 through December 2021, these nine clinics had over 4,000 COVID diagnoses and administered more than 6,000 COVID vaccines within their service network. St. John’s Community Health administered over 91,000 COVID vaccines outside their service network through their five school-based clinics. A UCLA analysis of our data showed that Wellness Centers continued to play a critical role during the pandemic-related school closures. Despite school closures, the proportion of visits for mental health and well-child exams increased, showing that clinics remained a critical access point for preventive and mental health care.

Read more about our 2022 Data xChange SBHC Impact Report

Attendance and Health

The Data xChange provided an in-depth analysis of attendance and student health data showing that visiting a school-based health center was associated with an increase in school attendance. On average, the proportion of full days present in school was declining for students before their first school-based health center visit. After the first visit to a school-based health center, the proportion of full days present increased over time. Students’ attendance increased by 5.4 school days per year following any type of visit to a school-based health center. Students’ attendance increased by 7 school days per year after a school-based health center visit for a mental health diagnosis.

Future insights

There are nearly 2,600 SBHCs in the nation and approximately 50 SBHCs (not including Well Being Centers) in the L.A. Unified School District. The near-term goal of the Data xChange is to provide a comprehensive view of all SBHCs across the district. The long-term goal of the L.A. Trust Data xChange is to be a model for SBHC data in the nation, enabling better research on the impact of student health on academic achievement —and better policy decisions at the local, state and federal levels.

As the first of its kind in the country, Data xChange can improve health and academic outcomes for all Los Angeles public school students. It is the first in the nation that combines student health and academic data on a regular basis. The Data xChange will add graduation rates and data about children experiencing homelessness, foster youth and English language learners beginning next year. This new data will provide health equity insights into special populations of youth who may lack access to care outside of the school setting.

The L.A. Trust recently received funds to help expand the scope of the Data xChange. Executive Director Maryjane Puffer shared that the organization, “has received significant funding for the next two years from the W.M Keck Foundation, Cedars-Sinai and Kaiser Permanente to expand our Data xChange to include mental health data and other remaining L.A Unified school-based health centers.”

About the Data xChange

The Data xChange is guided by an Expert Advisory Council that includes representatives from the following organizations: Children Now, Community Clinic Association of LA County, Community Coalition, Community Health Councils, First 5 Los Angeles, Inner City Struggle, Kaiser Permanente, L.A. Care Health Plan, LAUSD Student health & Human Services, LAUSD Office of Data & Accountability, Prevention Institute, The Children’s Health Partnership and The Advancement Project.

Read more about The L.A. Trust Data xChange 

Grant from W.M. Keck Foundation accelerates Data xChange

A grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation will expand The L.A. Trust Data xChange, connecting health and academic achievement data. 

A two-year, $300,000 grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation is supporting the full build-out of The L.A. Trust Data xChange, a first-in-the-nation data analytics platform that joins confidential and anonymized student health and academic data to advance wellness and success. 

The investment will help The Los Angeles Trust for Children’s Health identify health equity deficits and emerging public health concerns; leverage data to pioneer performance and quality improvement practices; direct local-control funding; and design prevention and education programs to meet student and community needs. 

“This generous grant helps us address two critical issues,” said Maryjane Puffer, executive director of The L.A. Trust. “The first is healthcare inequities. The second is the mental well-being of our students. Both of these issues are especially urgent as we recover from the pandemic.” 

Expanding scope  

During the next two years, The L.A. Trust will incorporate primary care and mental health records from additional providers as well as students’ academic, attendance and other health services data from Los Angeles Unified. Community and expert opinion will be integrated into the technological build-out, and communication protocols will be established.  

The grant will support the work of newly hired senior data and research analyst Alex Zepeda and continue the work of Data xChange business lead Patty Anton (principal at Anton Consulting) and her database architect team. 

The new funding will help the Data xChange incorporate clinical records from four newly opened Wellness Centers, community-based mental health providers serving school campuses, and care provided directly by Los Angeles Unified. The Data xChange will also work with specialists to help standardize data elements for mental health records and provide reports to decision-makers. 

“We are grateful to the W.M. Keck Foundation for taking The L.A. Trust Data xChange to the next level,” said Anna Baum, director of development and communications. “Their decision to invest in this important platform demonstrates real vision and commitment to the health of our students and communities.”