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Tips & Tools

Telehealth.HHS.gov has developed a Best Practice Guide for School-Based Telehealth.  Here you will find information about getting started, developing a school-based telehealth strategy, guidance on preparing students, parents and guardians for school-based telehealth, information about billing and information about primary care, behavioral health and diabetes care in the school setting.

As part of the School Health Services National Quality Initiative, the School-Based Health Alliance (SBHA) and the National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) put together Telehealth and Telemental Health: Innovations from School Health Services National Quality Initiative

The School-Based Health Alliance has created the following resources (some are focused on FQHCs, but the content is broadly applicable):

  • The School-Based Telehealth Playbook.  The playbook includes essential components for school-based telehealth start-up, key considerations from health centers across the country, and amendable resources for every planning stage. While this playbook speaks to FQHCs, the resources, guides, and tips are useful for most health systems.
  • Emergency Preparedness:
    • Emergency Preparedness in School-Based Telehealth Webinar.  This webinar was designed for health center and health center look-alike staff. The webinar aims to increase the audience’s knowledge of and capacity to define how health centers can partner effectively with schools to implement telehealth care, identify how to provide students with care through telehealth, and reduce barriers to telehealth services.
    • Enhancing Health Center and School Partnerships to Establish Telehealth Emergency Preparedness Plans.  This resource is designed to assist health centers in partnering with schools to offer telehealth services to schoolaged children during emergencies and environmental health impacts. It highlights the significance of telehealth, provides guidance on planning and delivering telehealth care during emergencies, and outlines strategies to ensure school-aged children receive timely access to these services.
    • Crisis-Ready: Using Telehealth to Support Health Centers and Schools During Climate Emergencies Webinar.  The purpose of the webinar was to educate health centers and schools on how to leverage telehealth to respond effectively to climate-related disasters. It aimed to provide practical guidance on setting up mobile telehealth clinics, maintaining communication during infrastructure disruptions, and collaborating with community agencies. The webinar shared real-world examples to demonstrate the use of telehealth in trauma care, patient assessment, triage, and family reunification during emergencies.
  • School-Based Mobile Healthcare Toolkit. While this is not focused specifically on telehealth, mobile units are frequently used with telehealth technology integration as part of the model and this toolkit provides the foundation for how to start school-based mobile healthcare as a service line.