Medical Home Partnership Model for ECE, K-8, and Pediatrics

The Medical Home Partnership (MHP) model is intended to build the capacity of a school or early childhood program to partner with students’ Medical Homes to better meet the health needs of their students. The priority of this approach is reducing communication barriers between families, schools and health clinicians to support preventive health measures, promptly address emergent health needs, and reduce health barriers to learning such as absenteeism. Designed at The Primary School (2016 - 2026), with partnership from Ravenswood Family Health Center of East Palo Alto & Kaiser Permanente Sleepy Hollow of Alameda County, this work involves regular collaboration with students’ pediatric clinics and provider teams (i.e. Medical Home) in service of pediatric health and student learning outcomes. For insight on the original model you have access to the Medical Home Partnership 101 and the 2026 MHP Annual Report from The Primary School as well as the overview video below:

Interested in bringing this model to your community? Jump to the Medical Home Partnership Quick Start Guide…

The guides contain a link to a downloable folder of all MHP resources in addition to indivudual resource links listed within each respective phase of MHP development.

Want to learn more first? Read more about the model below…

This model leverages the daily contact schools have with students in an effort to maximize the efficiency of and access to health services across settings. The goal is to demonstrate that leaning on school-clinic-family collaboration and communication can be effectively implemented in diverse communities and eventually sustained on public funding from education and health systems. The program aims to holistically address the social and family needs at the root of many child health conditions following 3 pillars:

While traditional School-Based Health Center (SBHC) models typically operate as on-site clinics, the Medical Home Partnership (MHP) model functions as a coordinating hub connecting families, schools, and community medical providers without brick & mortar clinic space at school. Critically, the MHP model has the potential to draw from a range of existing funding streams available for school-based services. The original program was funded with grants and private funding, but we outlined a path for interested organizations to identify funding opportunities in their local context in the Quick Start Guide.

The Medical Home Partnerships model does not require inherent change to school operations or policies that support basic school health infrastructure. It does, however, rely on schools or early childhood programs and partner medical homes to designate staff dedicated to regular collaboration on care coordination and health initiatives. Shared staffing is another path that can help mitigate differences in each system to facilitate data sharing, communication, and a consistent family experience. For more insight into this model you can reference the Medical Home Partnership 101. The Primary School implemented this particular medical home partnership model from 2016 to 2026 with Ravenswood Family Health Center, a community-based Federally Qualified Health Center, as a primary partner at The Primary School East Palo Alto. From 2021 to 2026 the Medical Home Partnership model was implemented with Kaiser Permanente NorCal’s Hayward-Sleepy Hollow Clinic in Hayward, CA as a primary partner at The Primary School East Bay.