Primary Department: Public Health Services
Primary Department Head/Elected Official: Leah Barton ─ Executive Director
Secondary Department: N/A
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Regular or Supplemental RCA: Regular RCA
Type of Request: Financial Authorization
Project ID (if applicable): N/A
Vendor/Entity Legal Name (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Contracted Goal (if applicable): N/A
MWBE Current Participation (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% MWBE Participation Goal: N/A - Goal not applicable to request
Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A
Justification for 0% Grant Indirect Costs Rate (if applicable): N/A - Not a grant item
Request Summary (Agenda Caption):
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Request for approval to host the Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities Summit in an amount not to exceed $11,500 on September 30, 2026, at the Harris County Department of Education Adult Education Building.
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Background and Discussion:
School nurses and school health professionals serve on the front lines of student health, managing immunization compliance, health reporting, outbreak response, and connections between families and health services. Strong coordination between school health teams and Harris County Public Health (HCPH is essential to maintaining healthy campuses, protecting communities from vaccine-preventable disease, and ensuring students and families can access the public health services available to them. The Healthy Schools, Healthy Communities Summit is a half-day convening, themed “Building Stronger Connections Between Schools, Families, and Public Health,” designed to provide school health professionals with timely public health updates, practical guidance, and resources. Scheduled for September 30, 2026, from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, the summit is timed early in the school year to support campuses during the critical back-to-school immunization compliance and reporting period. Session topics will include updated vaccine schedules and school immunization requirements; the importance of vaccines for school-aged children; connecting students and families to immunization services; school health reporting requirements and reporting portals; public health collaboration to prevent and mitigate outbreaks; HCPH’s role as a public health subject matter expert; and alignment with the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model. The summit will also serve as a feedback opportunity, allowing HCPH to gather input from school health partners across school districts, charter schools, and campus health teams to inform future planning, outreach, and collaboration
Expected Impact:
The summit is expected to strengthen collaboration between HCPH and school health partners countywide; equip school nurses with current immunization requirements, reporting expectations, and public health processes; improve awareness of available public health services and referral pathways for students and families; and promote coordinated school health strategies that support healthier campuses and communities. Improved school-public health coordination directly supports prevention, education, compliance, and outbreak mitigation efforts across Harris County school communities.
Alternative Options:
Alternatives considered include virtual webinars or distributing guidance to individual campuses by email. These approaches limit interactive engagement, reduce opportunities for relationship-building between school health staff and HCPH program teams, and do not provide the structured feedback opportunities needed to inform future collaboration. A single in-person convening centralizes updates, training, and networking in one high-impact, half-day format.
County Strategic Plan Goal: 4. Improve physical and mental health outcomes across all communities.
County Strategic Plan Objective: O: Increase access to quality health care, including preventive and behavioral health.
Justice/Safety Initiative (Goal 1): Choose an item.
Infrastructure Initiative (Goal 2): Choose an item.
Economy Initiative (Goal 3): Choose an item.
Health Initiative (Goal 4): Choose an item.
Climate/Resilience Initiative (Goal 5): Choose an item.
Housing Initiative (Goal 6): Choose an item.
Additional notes related to the Strategic Plan:
Prior Court Action (if any):
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Anticipated Court Date: August 06, 2026
Anticipated Implementation Date (if different from Court date): September 30, 2026
Emergency/Disaster Recovery Note: Not an emergency, disaster, or ARPA related item
Contact(s) name, title, department: Rohish Lal, Director, Office of Communication, Education and Engagement, Public Health Services
Attachments (if applicable): Conference Budget and Overview