The purpose of this Funding Opportunity Announcement is to support research that investigates the effectiveness of school-based health centers (SBHCs) as a health services care delivery model to address the needs of school-aged children from populations with health disparities (underserved youth).The goals of this FOA are to support multidisciplinary research that investigates the effectiveness of SBHCs as a health services care delivery model to detect, manage, and prevent chronic illnesses that disproportionately burden underserved youth. The mechanisms of impact by which SBHCs improve the health of at-risk populations such as sexual and gender minority youth, immigrant youth, and youth who reside in rural areas are also a relevant focus for understanding effective models of SBHCs. Applications are expected to provide a conceptual model that describes hypothesized causal pathways by which SBHCs engage underserved youth to improve health outcomes and how SBHCs may complement (or reduce) the use of other services.

Lessons learned through this initiative can help determine whether SBHCs can be adopted as a best practice care model to address the health services needs of underserved youth and if so, whether SBHCs given their accessibility to students can be an effective site of intervention to address disparities in chronic conditions, and behavioral, oral, and reproductive health of youth from underserved communities who lack access to health care.