Platform: Julia Graham Lear is the foremost national expert on school-based health programs and services. Her organization, The Center for Health and Health Care in Schools at George Washington University School of Public Health, which is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the the Bureau of Primary Health Care, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The CHHCS will aggressively promote this book to its 60,000-hit/month web site containing school health planning tools.

Pedigree: Includes expert contributions from more than 20 leading researchers in school health, including Joy Dryfoos, Julia Graham Lear, Lloyd Kolbe,  and Mark Weist.

Interest in topic is strong: School health is a central concern of the CDC, the nation's top public health agency. In part because of CDC influence, the number of school-based health centers in the United States rose nine percent over two years (2001, 2002) and has increased increase of 147% since 1994. The centers are now in 43 states plus the District of Columbia. (CHHCS)

On target: Tackles critically pressing topics such as developing organizational and financing options for school-based prevention and service programs; increasing access to dental and mental health services through school-based health centers; linking school and community-based health programs; and integrating in-school systems of care for special needs students with those available to the general student population.

Broad base of reader interest: Aggregates areas of concern for professionals in public health, school health nursing, preventive medicine, social work, and educational psychologists.

Strong potential as complementary text: Reviewers consistently recognized that the book would be a great resource for courses in school health, health promotion, and community health planning.