School Health Services Program

Parents…

• Play an important role in school health by providing documented health information about their children, which includes filling out a Health Information Form each year.
• Notify school health room staff any time their child’s health needs changed to ensure the necessary in-school supports are provided.

Schools…

• Set policy and guidelines for school health to follow federal, state and local mandates.
• Promote healthy nutrition and fitness through the school curriculum.
• Support health needs of the students by participating in training and education provided by the PHN.
• Participate in education and training provided by PHNs.
• Promote health and wellness in the school community.

School Health Aides…

• Are trained paraprofessionals assigned to work in the Fairfax County Public Schools school health rooms during school hours.
• Provide care of illness or injury that occur during school hours based on standard protocols and guidelines.
• Help to ensure students take medications appropriately.
• Coordinate mandated vision and hearing health screenings for students.
• Respond to health emergencies.
• Monitor student absence data.

Public Health Nurses…

• Assess students by reviewing the information provided by parents.
• Coordinates care and if indicated, develops individual care plans to support the student with a health condition during the educational day.
• Train teachers, administrators and other school staff to support individual student health needs.
• Develop and implement health promotion and disease prevention programs to educate the school community about public health concerns such as nutrition, fitness, chronic disease and emotional well-being.
• Supervise, train and work closely with School Health Aides in multiple schools.
• Investigate reports of communicable disease and increased absences in schools.

Topics

• Head lice brochure: English | Arabic | Chinese | Farsi | Korean | Spanish | Urdu | Vietnamese
• Flu
• Bed bugs