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Improving the air quality inside and outside of school buildings can improve students’ health and readiness to learn. The Massachusetts Asthma Action Partnership (MAAP), in partnership with the Massachusetts Department of Public Health’s Asthma Prevention and Control Program (APCP), and Health Resources in Action, have developed a new resource, Clearing the Air: An Asthma Toolkit for Healthy Schools to help schools create an asthma-friendly learning and working environment. This toolkit contains sample policy language, best practices, and curated resources and tools. Nine policy and practice areas have been identified as target areas to help improve air quality:

• School-wide environmental health and safety management
• Green cleaning and environmental purchasing programs
• Integrated pest management
• Leaks and moisture
• Clutter
• Outdoor air pollution
• Fragrance
• Tobacco
• Clinical asthma management in the school setting 

RAMP is pleased to release Leading the Way to Better Breathing: Managed Care Organizations and Asthma Home Visiting Services in California.

Asthma home visiting services are a tried and true method for improving health outcomes, lowering health care utilization costs, improving patient care, and reducing health care disparities. Yet, far too many people with poorly controlled asthma don’t have access to these key interventions.

This easy-to-access document aims to change that.

The purpose of this tool is to support managed care organizations in California – and organizations working with those MCOs – in improving asthma management for MCO members by ensuring the provision of asthma home visiting services.

The document highlights the numerous benefits of asthma home visiting services, from their ability to achieve triple aim goals to supporting quality improvement initiatives to addressing more “upstream” health determinants. The tool also explains an abundant number of opportunities MCOs can take advantage of to make support for asthma home visiting services as easy and as efficient as possible, including some best practice examples from the field.

To access the full tool, as well as individual sections, click here.

On the following pages, you’ll see that Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) funds are available in a variety of formats: for individuals versus for a tribe, as a loan versus a grant, as a competitive grant versus allocated funds, or for building capacity versus implementation. Realistically, this means that getting “funded” may require creativity (and patience). The other reality is that IAQ-specific grants continue to be rare. However, many grant programs allow for flexibility in how funds can be used.