The California Endowment, Consortium of Foundations Address the Role of Health in Education Policy Reform

Initiative Will Study the Critical Connection between Student Health and
Academic Achievement
LOS ANGELES--(Business Wire)--
In an effort to ensure that student health plays a central role in California`s
education reform agenda, the state`s largest private health foundation today
unveiled the first report produced from a multi-year project addressing the
connection between student health and academic achievement. The California
Education Supports Project, an initiative funded jointly by The California
Endowment, the James Irvine Foundation and the William and Flora Hewlett
Foundation, was introduced at a legislative forum hosted by the California
Assembly Select Committee on Schools and Community.

"Student health must be on California's education reform agenda if we ever
expect to address the achievement gap and dropout rate," said Assemblymember Tom
Torlakson, Chair of the Assembly Select Committee, to an audience of students,
teachers and community members.

The project will explore the complex connection between health and education
with the goal of developing policy recommendations that foster healthy and
supportive school and community environments. To achieve this goal, the
consortium will work with administration officials, state legislators and key
members of the education community to identify near- and long-term solutions to
simultaneously promote student health and learning.

"For too long California has addressed health and education as separate issues
often resulting in conflicting policies that fail to take into account their
interdependence," said Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of The California
Endowment. "Our goal with the California Education Supports Project is to
identify actionable strategies to improve the way that health is addressed in
our schools and in our communities."

The project represents the type of integrated policy and systems change
investments that The Endowment will make as it embarks on its new, 10-year
strategic direction: Building Healthy Communities, the goal of which is to
support the development of communities in which kids and youth are healthy, safe
and ready to learn.

"An education agenda that focuses exclusively on curriculum-based reform fails
to consider the multitude of health factors that contribute to a student`s
ability to focus and engage in learning," said Dr. Gregory Austin, Director of
WestEd Health and Human Development Program. "Even the best teacher, armed with
the most interesting curriculum cannot reach a student who is absent due to
asthma, distracted by a toothache or preoccupied with fears of violence."

Over the next several months, the Educational Supports Project will commission a
series of issue-specific papers to explore the impact of these various health
factors on academic achievement. The aim of which is to develop a framework for
injecting health-physical health, mental health and developmental health-into
the state`s education reform dialogue. Details on the project`s scope are
outlined in The Critical Connection Between Health and Academic Achievement: How
Schools and Policymakers Can Achieve a Positive Impact, a brief developed
jointly by WestEd and the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies at
The University of California, San Francisco.

As the project continues to unfold, information will be made available in the
form of papers and legislative hearings. For more information on how to provide
input to the project, contact Dr. Gregory Austin, Director of WestEd Health and
Human Development Program.

The California Endowment, a private, statewide health foundation, was
established in 1996 to expand access to affordable, quality health care for
underserved individuals and communities, and to promote fundamental improvements
in the health status of all Californians. The Endowment makes grants to
organizations and institutions that directly benefit the health and well-being
of the people of California. To date, The Endowment has awarded nearly 11,000
grants across California totaling more than $1.9 billion. For more information,
visit The Endowment`s Web site at www.calendow.org.

For more information on the California Endowment, visit our Web site at
www.calendow.org

The California Endowment
Meredith Fogg, 310-482-4324

Copyright Business Wire 2009