ABSTRACT
A robust body of research supports the centrality of K-12 education to health and well-being. Critical perspectives, particularly Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Dis/ability Critical Race Studies (DisCrit), can deepen and widen health justice's exploration of how and why a range of educational inequities drive health disparities. The CRT approaches of counternarrative storytelling, race consciousness, intersectionality, and praxis can help scholars, researchers, policymakers, and advocates understand the disparate negative health impacts of education law and policy on students of color, students with disabilities, and those with intersecting identities. Critical perspectives focus upon and strengthen the necessary exploration of how structural racism, ableism, and other systemic barriers manifest in education and drive health disparities so that these barriers can be removed.
Subject(s)
Education , Health Status Disparities , Social Determinants of Health , Social Justice , Systemic Racism , Humans , Civil Rights/education , Civil Rights/standards , Communication , Consciousness , Education/methods , Education/standards , Policy , Research Personnel , Social Discrimination/prevention & control , Social Justice/education , Social Justice/standards , Students , Systemic Racism/prevention & control , Teaching/standardsABSTRACT
THE PROBLEM: Marginalized populations experience health-harming legal needs-barriers to good health that require legal advocacy to overcome. Medical-legal partnerships (MLPs) embed lawyers into the healthcare team to resolve these issues, but identifying patients with health-harming legal needs is complex, and screening practices vary across MLPs.Purpose of Article: Academic and community partners who collaborate in an MLP at a school-based health center (SBHC) share their process of co-creating a two-stage legal check-up for adolescents. KEY POINTS: Screening adolescents for health-harming legal needs is challenging. It took ongoing collaboration to refine the process to fit the needs of adolescents and meet the partners' goals. CONCLUSION: Social determinants of health play a significant role in health disparities, and there is a need for innovative solutions to screen and address these in vulnerable populations. Other partners can learn from our experiences to co-create their own approach to addressing health-harming legal needs.
