Children’s Institute Builds Bridges Between Health and Education Systems

A story from Health & Education Fund grantee Children’s Institute.

When we take care of children and families, everyone benefits. Investing in the health of children is essential to the future of our communities and our state.

The first years of a child’s life have an outsized influence on their future health, as well as their academic and economic success. Yet health systems, including Oregon’s coordinated care organizations, often spend far more of their resources on adult health. That’s why Children’s Institute partnered with Oregon Health Authority and Oregon Pediatric Improvement Partnership to create health metrics for kindergarten readiness.

Oregon’s coordinated care organizations (CCOs), regional networks of healthcare providers who work together to serve Oregonians on the Oregon Health Plan, are accountable to something called “incentive metrics.” When a CCO meets an incentive metric, they receive funding from the state. History shows CCOs improve their performance drastically in incentivized areas.

Children’s Institute worked with their Health and Learning Initiative partners to identify and recommend four new incentive metrics: preventative dental visits, well-child visits for children three to six years old, social-emotional health, and follow-ups to developmental screenings.

A lot of research, time and careful consideration went into choosing these metrics. The partners convened a 15-member workgroup, which included representatives from early learning hubs, community-based organizations, healthcare providers and more, that met monthly to get grounded in family data and share their unique perspectives. They also worked with Portland State University to hold eight listening sessions around the state with parents and caregivers, emphasizing input from Black, Latinx and other families of color, as well as families in rural communities.

When it came to a social-emotional health metric, the Health and Learning Initiative partners didn’t find any that met Oregon’s needs, so they developed their own. No other metric like it exists in Oregon or the nation. Children’s Institute finds this metric to be particularly important given the pandemic’s harmful effect on social and emotional development and well-being for young children.

Peg King of Health Share of Oregon, the CCO serving Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties, said, “This more upstream measure rewards meaningful engagement with the communities for whom the system clearly is not working. And in doing this kind of asset mapping and community engagement, Health Share hopes to direct resources toward system change in a new and transformative way.”

Oregon has endorsed all four of the recommended incentive metrics and adopted the first three, and Children’s Institute looks forward to supporting both systems and communities in meeting them.

Children’s Institute views itself as a bridge builder between health and education systems, because both are critical to children and community health, but too often they work on opposite sides of the same metaphorical river, never coming together to collaborate. They also build bridges between community and systems, ensuring systems stay grounded in what communities need most.

During the 2022 Oregon Legislative Session, Children’s Institute had great success with their Early Childhood Coalition priorities! Oregon legislators voted to fund $2 million for relief nurseries, $2 million to raise wages for Healthy Families Oregon, $122,830 to restore services through Healthy Families Oregon, and $100 million for a child care investment package. Like their Health and Learning Initiative, Children’s Institute’s legislative advocacy work aims to create a family-centered, equitable early childhood system.

Learn more and support Children’s Institute at https://childinst.org.