Meet the Health and Community Concerns Commission

Health & Community CommissionCalifornia State PTAs Health and Community Concerns Commission addresses issues related to the support of the whole child within the home, school, and community through relevant programs and through advocacy at the state and local level. 

The commission has two areas of responsibility that overlap. They include promoting effective health education programs and services in schools and communities and addressing the many other community issues that impact our families and students. 

The topics that fall under the umbrella of community concerns address areas that touch young people outside of classroom learning, including:

  • Strengthening public services for children and families (e.g. child-care facilities and personnel licensing, coordination of children’s services, delinquency prevention, and family preservation)
  • Support for the most vulnerable children and families (e.g. child support, foster care, homelessness, missing and exploited children)
  • Keeping communities safe places in which children and families thrive (e.g. disaster preparedness, environmental protection, safety education, school safety)
  • Protecting young people from criminal activity (e.g. child abuse, youth violence, vandalism, gangs, and cults)

The topics that are related to health issues and education includes:

  • Supporting immunization legislation to protect vulnerable children
  • Promoting comprehensive health education taught by qualified personnel as an integral part of the core school curriculum
  • Supporting efforts to provide equal access to quality, affordable, basic, and preventive healthcare for all children, youth, pregnant women, and their families
  • Supporting solutions that enable all children with chronic illness or other healthcare needs to be safe in California schools, such as by promoting education of parents and school personnel on the complexities of disease management
  • Educating families to recognize the importance of a healthy environment and the potential dangers that environmental contamination poses for children’s developing minds and bodies
  • Bringing greater awareness of behavior-health issues and social/emotional development through collaborating with the school community and creating a full range of services to help all kids thrive
  • Advocating for statewide health programs, and actively participating on a wide variety of statewide committees addressing mental, physical, and environmental health issues

Local PTA members and leaders benefit from the work of the Health and Community Concerns Commission by having up to date and accurate, reliable resources at their fingertips in the Resource library and Health and Community Concerns web pages.  The commission is continually working to update our resources and provide trustworthy information for our members.

If you would like to share a resource with the commission, please refer to this page and email the commission at either health@capta.org or community-concerns@capta.org with your resource.  

The Health and Community Concerns Commission for the 2021-2023 term consists of the Vice President and 11 members of the California State PTA Board of Managers. Our volunteer leaders from across the state work to support collaborations among caregivers, schools, communities, institutions, agencies and organizations which are essential to the health, wellbeing and academic success of California’s children and youth.