The Health We Share: Preparing for a Healthy School Year

By Lydia Allen, NVFS Community Health Director 

I have a Joyce in my life. She’s the school health aide. She makes sure the medications on file for my kids at the clinic are up-to-date. She’s my back-up reminder, when I forget where to start with back-to-school checklists for health forms and records.  

We all need a Joyce in our lives. Remembering what health related to-dos are needed at the beginning of the school year can feel daunting. Parents are already exhausted from the kids being home all summer and are carrying a mix of emotions and stressors preparing for the new school year.  

It may feel premature to get ready for cold-and-flu season, or may not coincide with our child’s annual well-check, depending on their birth date. But the back-to-school season is a natural and important opportunity to check-in on your child’s health.  

From locker hallways to assemblies in the gymnasium — kids are indoors in more crowded places during the school year, which brings an increase in viruses spreading, and an uptick in cold and flu cases, particularly during the winter. That’s why September and October are key months to get your child immunized for the flu, and also an opportune time to ask your doctor if you have questions about the COVID-19 or RSV vaccine.   

At NVFS, our Community Health Workers (CHWs) are the “Joyces” for our community. They are the extension between our clients and those trusted school health nurses and aides, as well as to the larger health system.  

One of the simplest — yet most powerful — messages our CHWs convey to parents of children in medical access program is the importance of preventative care: taking their children for their annual check-ups with up-to-date immunizations and routine screenings.  

We explain that regular visits to your child’s pediatrician help prevent illness and catch problems early. They can provide vaccines, manage conditions like asthma and diabetes, and screen for health issues before they become more serious.

For each child enrolled in our medical access program, on an annual basis we run through a checklist, similar to our own:  

If they don’t know, that’s ok. We’re here to help.  

We mitigate parents’ stress around navigating the challenges and barriers of our health system by screening them for what services are available to them within the health safety net in Northern Virginia. We start locally with school clinics and public health departments, to free clinics like the MAP Clinic or Arlington Free Clinic, or to reduced-cost care at Federally Qualified Healthcare Centers like HealthWorks or Lunera, or to larger hospital systems like Kaiser Permanente, INOVA or VHC Health that have charity care programs. If they are eligible for government assisted health programs like Medicaid or if their families can purchase health insurance plans on the insurance marketplace, we assist them with those applications. 

Keeping on track with your child’s health and all the paperwork that comes with it can feel overwhelming. Through our own lived experience interacting with the health system and the mountains of administrative burdens that come along with it, our CHWs can cut through the confusion and help our clients access the essential building blocks for their child’s healthy growth and development.  

Parents shouldn’t feel that they have to tackle every aspect of their child’s health at once. Starting out with the building blocks of preventative care appointments is a good place to start. And there are supports in the community that can help, from Community Health Workers like ours at NVFS and within clinics to school nurses and aides. Together, we can help parents build confidence in navigating the system and set-up families for a healthy start to the school year ahead. 

Because after all, we all need a Joyce in our lives.

Learn more about our Community Health Programs on this page.