What school leaders can do to help their students stay on Medicaid
As continuous Medicaid coverage unwinds and Coloradans must take active steps to maintain their health insurance, educators and school leaders are in a prime position to spread information about this significant change. The School Superintendents Association (AASA) has prepared a toolkit for school/district leaders focused on the public health insurance renewal process.
This is an important issue for educators and education advocates to become familiar with – you can play a critical role in spreading awareness to your students, parents, and community. The toolkit includes the following templates:
- An email any educator can send to parents
- A sample call script
- Sample social media posts about the unwinding for schools, districts, and organizations
- A one-pager in English and Spanish explaining what the unwinding is and what parents needs to do to keep kids covered
- A sample website banner, blogpost, and newsletter insert for schools/districts/orgs to use
Millions of students across the country run the risk of losing Medicaid and CHIP coverage as regular renewals restart. Since March 2020, children and families enrolled in Medicaid have not been required to complete renewal paperwork to stay covered – but with pandemic-era policies coming to an end, students enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP (Child Health Plan Plus or CHP+ in Colorado) could lose their coverage as soon as April if they do not submit renewal paperwork on time or if they are no longer eligible and need to transition to another form of coverage.
Parents with kids on Medicaid must act quickly to confirm or update their contact information for every member of their family on Medicaid with Health First Colorado. The Colorado Department of Health Policy and Financing has published information about the importance of updating your contact information, and has created a toolkit to share this information with resources in 11 languages.
Families must also complete their Medicaid and CHP+ renewal paperwork when they receive it – which could be at any point this year or early next year, depending on when they initially enrolled. Learn more about the process in Colorado here, and learn how to help keep Coloradans covered and use AASA’s toolkit to spread the word.
