Schools offer an ideal setting for the intersection of health and education to apply early intervention and prevention that can be sustained into adulthood. This website is designed to help conduct school oral health screenings and link students to dental care through a school-linked dental program. It is a step-by-step guide designed to assist in setting up a program utilizing the minimal available resources. It can start with one school and one grade at a time.
School-Linked Dental Programs
A school-linked dental program is an oral health program that partners with schools to connect students with dental care, but the care is not necessarily provided on school grounds. Instead, the program uses the school as a point of access to identify students with oral health needs, obtain consent, coordinate referrals, and facilitate treatment with community dental providers.
Community-clinical linkages help to connect health care providers, community organizations, and public health agencies so they can improve patients' access to preventive and chronic care services. Through the collaboration between the LOHPs, local educational agencies (LEAs), school nurses or school health coordinators, local dental providers, and community-based organizations, the strategy of community-clinical linkage can be utilized to promote and coordinate dental health care delivery to children by improving access to dental care services.
As illustrated in this document by the CDPH Office of Oral Health, a community-clinical linkage can be achieved through school-linked or school-based dental programs. The oral health needs of the priority student population, gaps in needed services, available community assets, and resources guide the program model for community-clinical linkage (see figure).
A school-linked dental program employs a process of raising oral health awareness, identifying the children’s oral health needs, and notifying and linking families to dental care through a referral pathway. School-linked dental programs can include oral health education, support for healthy oral hygiene habits, oral health screenings or assessments, referral and care coordination, preventive services such as fluoride varnish or dental sealants when available, and linkage to a dental home.
Kindergarten Oral Health Assessment (KOHA)
The Kindergarten Oral Health Assessment is required by California law for children entering public school for the first time in transitional kindergarten (TK), kindergarten, or first grade. A school-linked program, such as an on-site oral health screening program, can help schools and partners support this requirement. Children who receive the required screening in TK do not need to repeat it in kindergarten or first grade for the purposes of this law. For more information, visit the COHTAC KOHA resources page.
Implementing a School-Linked Program in 5 Steps:
