School-Based Health Services in Virginia and the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Ashley M Kranz, Elizabeth D Steiner, Jean M Mitchell
PMID 35191033WHAT IT FOUND
Many Virginia elementary schools reported fewer school-based health services during the pandemic, especially dental services.
Speech, vision and hearing screenings stayed at or above 95%, and mental health concerns rose.
Key findings
01Reported dental screenings and dental services fell from 50.7% and 41.0% before the pandemic to 15.3% and 12.0% during the 2020-2021 school year.
02Vision, hearing, and speech screenings remained at or above 95% before and during the pandemic.
03Mental health or access to mental health care was the top concern for more respondents during the pandemic than before, at 27.6% versus 15.0%.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The survey is cross-sectional and reports what school staff said at one time, so it cannot show that the pandemic caused the reported changes. Respondents might have interpreted survey questions differently. Responses may be affected by social desirability if staff answered in a way they thought would be viewed favorably. The survey did not collect how many students actually received screenings or services. Results are from Virginia elementary schools and may not generalise to schools in other states. Responses were collected in May and June 2021, before Delta and Omicron emerged, so later pandemic conditions may differ.
Declared interests
The article is marked as supported by U.S. government Public Health Service research funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the reported declines as proof that individual children received less care or that the pandemic caused them. The survey reports what school staff said about service availability, not student-level service counts, and it is cross-sectional.