California has committed to providing a safety net of housing, nutrition, and medical care for its children — yet nearly 88% of eligible children on Medi-Cal are missing out on essential case management. How can we close this massive gap and ensure every family can finally achieve lasting health? While California has a wide variety of offerings to support our most vulnerable populations through state-funded Medi-Cal Enhanced Care Management (ECM) and Community Supports initiatives, as of 2024, it was estimated that only one in eight of Medi-Cal eligible children and youth in California were utilizing these services.
When so many eligible young people are missing out, it’s clear the state must find better ways to reach them. One promising solution is to bring the message to where children already spend their days: schools. The Contra Costa PATH CPI Collaborative, a state-funded county collaborative led by Intrepid Ascent, aims to do just that by tapping in local schools, districts, and school-based providers to share information about these Medi-Cal programs and help jumpstart community-based referrals.
Schools As A Catalyst For Change
Helping families understand how Medi-Cal programs and services can support them has proved a challenge, and with recent headlines about Medicaid cuts and expanding eligibility requirements, that challenge is expected to grow. Some communities are doubling down and working to increase enrollment. Through the Contra Costa Collaborative, we learned that maximizing enrollment requires a three-pronged approach: leveraging trusted partners such as schools and Community Health Workers (CHWs), combining virtual outreach with traditional in-person engagement (like coffee chats), and rigorously tracking metrics to guarantee success.
A successful strategy involves educating families about available services and equipping close stakeholders who can refer children directly into these programs. Webinars, adapted for the needs of different audiences, proved to be a valuable tool in engaging children and youth stakeholders, including local school administrators, nurses, county officials, parents, and guardians with limited familiarity of the programs. As Rosie Reid, Mt. Diablo Unified School District nurse and foster youth and McKinney-Vento program specialist, puts it, “There are clinically adjacent staff in our schools who are well-positioned to engage with students and families. It only makes sense that these folks be empowered with the knowledge of these life changing programs that will connect our students and their families to the services they need to be healthy.”
As part of the Contra Costa Collaborative, our efforts included:
- Outreach to 284 principals across 18 school districts in Contra Costa County, as well as 70 administrators, 17 community schools coordinators, and 20+ school nurses
- A presentation to 23 stakeholders, including ECM providers, CHWs, and school coordinators
- A briefing for 42 members of the Contra Costa Comprehensive Prevention Planning team
- An in-person meeting with 12 parents at an elementary school parent coffee chat
- A session with 22 school nurses in Mt. Diablo Unified School District
- A presentation for the Foster Youth & McKinney-Venot district and charter school liaisons at the county office of education
Why This Matters Now
For children and youth with complex health and social needs, programs like ECM can be life-changing. Ultimately, the way to get children and youth enrolled in and accessing case management and social services resources, is to engage the school community and those that work closely with children and youth outside of schools, share knowledge, and position these stakeholders to be referrers into these programs. As Tshilumba Kabongo, community schools coordinator at DeJean Middle School in Richmond puts it, “at their best, community schools are hubs that integrate academics, health, and social services. We all — school based staff and Medi-Cal providers — are in the position to make this real. When we put the right people in place, we don’t just run programs — we change outcomes for families. For us, that is what investing in our understanding and connectivity to CalAIM and other Medi-cal services does — changing the outcomes for families.”
For more information about the Contra Costa PATH CPI Collaborative, please visit this site, and click here to register for the collaborative. To hear and learn more about the children and youth work happening in Contra Costa County, register here for the DHCS Best Practices Webinar on Oct. 24 at 10 a.m. PDT. Intrepid has built a school-centered children and youth toolkit with additional best practices that can be leveraged to conduct a similar engagement process across other counties.
There are clinically adjacent staff in our schools who are well-positioned to engage with students and families. It only makes sense that these folks be empowered with the knowledge of these life changing programs that will connect our students and their families to the services they need to be healthy.
Mt. Diablo Unified School District Nurse and Foster Youth and McKinney-Vento Program Specialist