KCHC October Newsletter

Kentucky Coalition For Healthy Children Newsletter

Issue 41 | October 2025

Working collaboratively on policies and practices in and around schools that promote equity and improve the physical, social, and emotional health and well-being of children, youth, and families.

The opinions and viewpoints expressed in this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the positions of all coalition partners.

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KCHC Member Highlights

Roadshow | ThriveKY Policy & Advocacy Updates

Join the ThriveKY Coalition for important updates on the economy, Medicaid, KCHIP, SNAP, housing, transportation, childcare, public health, behavioral health, and suicide prevention. This month’s Advocacy for Thriving Communities Roadshow is being held in-person in Covington on October 7. The ThriveKY 2025 Virtual Advocacy Series will take place October 21 at 10:00 AM ET. Program information and registration here.

Webinar│ Building Resilience through Spiritual First Aid

Join the Bounce Coalition on October 8th for a webinar on building resilience with the co-founders of Spiritual First Aid, Dr. Jamie Aten and Kent Annan, M.Div.. Spiritual First Aid teaches frontline peer-to-peer spiritual and emotional care and trauma-informed best practices through its step-by-step BLESS CRP helping framework. Register here.

Grand Rounds │Trauma-Informed Practices for the Classroom

The Bounce Fall Grand Rounds, Keeping Students in the Classroom: Trauma-Informed Practices for Behavior Management, on October 14, will explore the impact of trauma on student behavior, provide an overview of survival behaviors, and equip participants to recognize challenging behaviors as possible trauma responses. Register here.

Fall Meeting │ Partnership for a Resilient Kentucky (PaRK)

Join us at the PaRK Fall Meeting, Building Staff Resilience with Bounce, on October 14. At this meeting you will learn about how Family Health Centers, Inc. (FHC) implemented the Bounce coalition’s program to strengthen workplace culture and well-being. FHC, a multi-site Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in Louisville, is guided by a mission to provide high-quality care regardless of ability to pay, and a vision to treat every patient like family." Register here.

Annual Meeting | Kentucky Voices for Health

Registration is now open for Kentucky Voices for Health’s 2025 Annual Meeting, happening on December 9 at the Hyatt Regency Lexington! Join stakeholders from across the Commonwealth to explore the shifting healthcare landscape as we prepare for major changes to health coverage and safety-net funding in 2026. Sessions will touch on the impact of recent state and federal legislation, how providers and communities are preparing for changes, and opportunities for advocacy as we prepare for the 2026 General Assembly. Learn more and register here.

What's New in Children's Health

New! 2025 Kentucky Farm to School Tool Kit Now Available

The Kentucky Farm to School Network and the Kentucky Department of Education, Division of School and Community Nutrition, have released the 2025 Kentucky Farm to School Tool Kit, a great resource to strengthen the connection between local farms and school nutrition programs.

With Kentucky ranking 6th in the nation for number of farms, the potential to expand farm-to-school efforts is enormous. During the 2022–23 school year, 1,011 schools and over 553,000 students participated in Farm to School activities, and more than 55% of School Food Authorities served local foods in their cafeterias, surpassing national averages. Still, there’s more work to be done to ensure every Kentucky student benefits from fresh, local food.

The new Tool Kit provides customizable resources for school food service programs, including:

Guidance on procuring local farm foods
Kentucky- and county-specific ag profiles
Recipes and cooking demos
Harvest of the Month toolkits
Posters, stickers, press release templates, and more

Whether you're just getting started or looking to expand your Farm to School efforts, this toolkit is designed to support you every step of the way.

New Law Could Limit Access to Free School Meals

Signed into law on July 4, 2025, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (HR 1) introduces major changes to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), with significant implications for school meal programs. A new report by the School Nutrition Association, Impact of HR1 On School Meal Programs, outlines how these changes could reverse progress made in expanding access to nutritious school meals and place additional strain on schools and families alike.

Currently, children in families receiving Medicaid or SNAP are often automatically eligible for free or reduced-price school meals. However, HR 1 is expected to reduce enrollment in both programs, leading to fewer children being directly certified for meal benefits.

The Critical Role of Out-of-School Time Programs

In 2002, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine released its foundational Community Programs for Youth Development. Since then, Out-of- School (OST) programs have grown in scope, diversity, and impact. Today, they serve more varied populations, emphasize cultural responsiveness, and receive increased, but still have insufficient, public and private support.

A new report, The Future of Youth Development: Building Systems and Strengthening Programs. reviews progress, highlights access and quality gaps, and outlines future research needs. Despite changing contexts, the importance of OST programs in promoting positive youth development remains as strong as ever.

Obesity Outpaces Underweight in Children Worldwide

For the first time, global obesity rates among school-age children and adolescents have surpassed underweight, marking a major shift in global malnutrition with serious consequences for health and development.

The 2025 Child Nutrition Report, Feeding Profit: How Food Environments Are Failing Children, published by the United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF), analyzes another aspect of the childhood obesity crisis, unhealthy, ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks, which are inexpensive, heavily marketed, and widely available. Meanwhile, nutritious foods remain inaccessible and unaffordable for many.

The report calls for urgent action, offering eight key recommendations to reshape children’s food environments, including strengthening social protection programs to address poverty and increase children’s access to nutrition and healthy diets, establish robust safeguards to protect public policy processes from interference by the ultra-processed food industry, implement comprehensive, and mandatory measures to transform food environments.

Without bold, coordinated policies, countries remain unprepared to protect children from a rising tide of unhealthy food systems.

In Your Community

Building Resilience in Estill County: A Trauma-Informed Transformation

Over the past three years, the Bounce Coalition, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, has been working to make Estill County Schools more trauma-informed, that is, creating environments where students can thrive, despite the challenges of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). Through a comprehensive partnership launched in 2023, Estill County became the fourth Kentucky school district to collaborate with Bounce on trauma-informed systems change. The initiative began at West Irvine Elementary during the 2023–2024 school year, where Bounce provided:

Professional development for all staff
Hands-on training in trauma-informed de-escalation techniques
Parent and caregiver engagement activities
Community resilience events
Program evaluation and student focus groups
Resources to support social and emotional development

The success at West Irvine motivated the district to expand this work across Estill Springs Elementary School and parts of the district during the 2024-2025 school years. Through this partnership, we have seen increases in understanding how ACEs influence behavior, increased understanding of the signs of trauma, and growth in personal resiliency building.

Working alongside community partners, students and staff, this whole-school approach has already made a meaningful impact. As Bounce continues its work throughout the 2025-2026 school year, Bounce will continue to provide training and support the development of systems that will sustain a resilient school community where every student feels safe, supported, and ready to learn.

Take Action!

Urge Congress to Protect Kentucky’s Health Coverage – Extend the ACA Tax Credits

This fall, as Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace open enrollment begins on November 1, millions, including thousands of Kentuckians, could face unaffordable premium increases unless Congress acts now.

The enhanced premium tax credits, which have made ACA coverage more affordable, are set to expire. Without renewal, Kentucky families could see their premiums jump, putting coverage out of reach for many.

A new report from the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy shows just how hard this will hit: families will face higher premiums and reduced financial help. Kentucky’s kynect marketplace, long seen as a national model, is at risk of serious enrollment losses and market destabilization if these credits are allowed to lapse.

The following are advocacy resources from Community Catalyst. Tell your representatives to protect Kentucky families by extending the ACA premium tax credits.