The bipartisan Title X service grants first enacted by Congress in 1970 for reproductive health care for low-income and uninsured Americans that are received by most of the SBHCs in high schools were frozen by the new Federal Administration on March 31, 2025, a day before they were set to renew for their 4th year of funding in a 5 year funding cycle. These school-based health centers and other clinics across the Commonwealth are in limbo two months later, continuing to serve low-income teens but with no assurance that they will be reimbursed.

Nearly one million low-income and uninsured individuals across the country, more than 200,000 in PA, will not receive services for STD testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, birth control and pregnancy prevention education. The ACLU and the agencies that Title x flows through filed a lawsuit immediately to object the authority to terminate Title X, but that will take time and wont prevent the services from shutting down in the meantime, and the lawsuit will cost more money.

Contact your Senator and Representative to reinforce how critical these services are in Pennsylvania.

Together We Can Reduce Chronic Absenteeism

PSBHA and Pennsylvania SBHC operators join Attendance Works in their national chronic absence challenge to reduce chronic absence by 50% in 5 years. Chronic absenteeism is a leading early warning indicator of a student’s academic future. Poor health, particularly from asthma, is a leading cause of absenteeism. School-based health centers are the critical and most effective way to decrease absenteeism for students and schools struggling with poor health. Join us in this national challenge to intervene in Pennsylvania.

 PSBHA published its 3rd quarter SBHC Data Snapshot of services across Pennsylvania. 7,921 students served across 8 counties.

 PSBHA hosted its spring virtual gathering of SBHC leaders across the state. The leaders discussed school-sponsor collaboration strategy as well as policy and funding developments in Pennsylvania at the federal level, including the certain impacts on the economy and health of individuals and the system statewide if Medicaid is cut as promised, as well as Title X and other vulnerable funding.

BREAKING NEWS * BREAKING NEWS

In light of federal funding cuts and subsequent travel bans across the country, the School-Based Health Alliance canceled their annual conference. Each year more than 20,000 school-based leaders and advocates from across the country convene to share and learn state of the art strategies and successes to improve student academic outcomes through school-based health centers. This cancellation is a critical loss for our community at this critical juncture in our country.

Pennsylvania Welcomes Five New SBHCs

PSBHA welcomes the launch of five new SBHCs this school year. Kudos to Family First in York, Valley Health Partners in Allentown, and FPCN and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. We will continue to advocate for state support for these and other SBHCs to serve Pennsylvania’s most vulnerable children and teens with sustainability and documented impact and return on investment.

In May 2025, Representative Tarik Khan, along with 21 of his House colleagues, introduced legislation aimed at amending the school code to promote and integrate School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) within state and local health and education systems. The proposed bill, known as HB 1376, has been referred to the Health Committee for further consideration. This important legislation recognizes the vital role that SBHCs play in improving healthcare access for underserved populations and regions throughout our state. By standardizing these entities, we aim to ensure consistent and equitable health services for all students. If you notice that your state representative is not listed as a co-sponsor of this crucial legislation, we urge you to reach out and encourage them to support HB 1376. Together, we can enhance healthcare access for our communities. Thank you to Representative Khan and all co-sponsors for their commitment to this cause!

Please support our work to sustain the school-based health center data hub. PSBHA worked with Apex to launch the SBHC Data Hub in 2022 with a two year Health Equity grant sponsored by the Pennsylvania Senate. Now we must sustain it, to continue to quantify data, describe services provided, and evaluate impact.