Demonstrating the Impact of School-Based Health Centers | Key Measures That Highlight ROI
April 17, 2026 | Sophia Durant
School-Based Health Centers (SBHCs) improve health and educational outcomes by reducing barriers to care, preventing emergency and hospital visits, and supporting student success. This report outlines key measures used to demonstrate the health, educational, reach, and economic impact of SBHCs, with a focus on illustrating ROI for states and school districts.
- Health Outcomes and Service Utilization: This section lists measures that illustrate how SBHCs reduce acute care use and strengthen connections to preventive and ongoing health services.
- Cost Savings and Economic Impact: This section details the measures that show how SBHCs reduce costly care and generate meaningful financial returns.
- Educational and Social Outcomes: This section focuses on measures that showcase the impact of SBHCs on student success in and out of the classroom.
- Reach and Access: This section highlights measures that demonstrate how SBHCs support health care access through insurance coverage, geographic reach, and more.
- Evaluation and Reporting Examples: This section offers examples of how jurisdictions have evaluated and reported on the impact of school-based health services (i.e., leveraging Medicaid reimbursement and reinvestment, standardized data collection, and sample measure utilization).
By using cross-sector data and leveraging existing partnerships, state health agencies can strengthen evaluation efforts, inform program improvement, and build a compelling case for sustained investment in school-based health services.
Reviewed by Christi Mackie, Vice President, Community Health & Prevention; Sanaa Akbarali, Senior Director, Maternal & Child Health.