PSBHA NEWS | September 2026

Shout out to the Strong Minds, Bright Futures Coalition on a successful Youth Voices, Statewide Solutions: A Pennsylvania Town Hall on Youth Mental Health last month. Hundreds of people and legislators listened to young people from across the state speak about barriers to care, the role of schools and trusted community supports, and the need for help before crisis. Read the Coalition’s policy pillars for a roadmap to critical improvements in Pennsylvania.

September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Let’s act on the Coalition’s policy goals, so we don’t get to that point.

Senate Bill 1411 & House Bill 1376

stand to improve child and adolescent access to physical, behavioral, and oral health care and improve health and academic outcomes. As Pennsylvania braces for the impact of massive cuts to Medicaid, as well as Title X funding for reproductive health services, our safety nets must be strengthened and supported.

In urban and rural communities alike, our hospitals are too fragile to absorb the care, usually at the point of crisis. The 2025 school-based health care (SBHC) data analysis performed by the University of Pittsburgh Medicaid Research Center showed that SBHCs saved Pennsylvania roughly $1 million in less hospital visits by SBHC users. Let’s put our tax dollars on the front end and reap all the health and academic benefits that follow.  

Pennsylvania School-Based Health Centers turned out at the annual School-Based Health Alliance conference in Washington DC in June.

Leaders from Family First in York presented on school-based behavioral health work and leaders from Education Plus Health and PSBHA, Apex and PHMC evaluators, shared a poster presentation on data and outcomes. Michelle Mieses of Valley Health Partners in Allentown was awarded for being a Super Hero.

Make a Difference: Support the Important Work of SBHCs Today!

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.