Andrea Foster joins Dr. Sandie Morgan as the two discuss how integrating health services within school systems enhances student well-being and functions as a vital strategy to prevent human trafficking.

Andrea Foster

Andrea Foster is currently the administrator of Integrated Health within Student Services for the Orange County Department of Education. She provides supportive services and resources to promote healthy environments for over 400,000 students and their families across the county. She wants students to be able to access their education and become productive, successful adults. She has 24 years of school nursing experience across multiple settings and was recently a guest speaker at the annual Ensure Justice Conference.

Key Points

• MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) is a tiered framework that supports students at all levels—from universal interventions like screenings to highly individualized health or academic plans.


• Integrated Health addresses the intersection of medical, emotional, and academic needs, ensuring students are supported holistically across environments.


• Schools function as safety nets, especially when community awareness of MTSS allows families to engage with school systems more effectively.


• Staff training to identify red flags and behavioral patterns is crucial in creating trusting environments where students feel safe to share concerns.


• Rather than punitive responses to tardiness or behavioral issues, staff are encouraged to approach students and families with empathy and support.


• Programs like “Handle With Care” and “FOCUS” facilitate communication from families to schools when a child may need extra care without disclosing private details.


• Health education in schools—whether related to chronic conditions, substance use, or injury prevention—empowers students to make informed choices.


• Digital wellness is a growing area of focus, emphasizing safe, intentional use of technology and awareness of harmful online challenges.


• Students should be taught to critically evaluate online prompts, understand data privacy, and self-advocate when something feels unsafe or inappropriate.


• Empowering students to self-advocate helps them protect themselves and their peers, especially when navigating online platforms.


• Every child needs at least one trusted adult; school staff can foster these relationships by creating open, safe environments for honest conversations.


• Community involvement—through school board engagement, volunteering, or partnerships—can strengthen schools’ ability to support students and families effectively.

Resources

• Andrea Foster on LinkedIn

Transcript

[00:00:00 ] Sandie Morgan: Welcome to the Ending Human Trafficking Podcast. I’m Dr. Sandie Morgan, and this is the show where we equip you to study the issues, be a voice, and make a difference in the fight to end human trafficking here at the Global Center for Women in Justice Vanguard University. This is episode number 343, integrating Health Services in school strategies to keep students safe.

Andrea Foster is currently the administrator of Integrated Health within the student services for the division of the Orange County Department of Education. She provides supportive services and resources to promote healthy environments to over 400,000 students and their families across.

County. She wants students to be able to access their education and become productive, successful adults. She has 24 years of school nursing experience across [00:02:00 ] multiple settings, and recently she was a guest speaker at our. Annual Ensure Justice Conference, and I think one of the things I loved, Andrea, was how you advocated for where the kids are and what they need.

So welcome to the show.

Thank you Thank you so much for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here.

so let’s start off first with a little bit of an understanding of where your role in Department of Education fits in this concept of MTSS. What is MTSS and why is it such a big deal here in California?

[00:02:46 ] Andrea Foster: So MTSS stands for the multi-tiered system of support, and this is a tiered system, that we can utilize or a framework. That we can utilize to support students wherever they’re at, and [00:03:00 ] whatever their needs are. So, tier one is our supports that we provide to all students. these are things like preventative measures.

Other supports like vision and hearing screenings. on the academic side, it’s gonna be your normal academic, accommodations that are made during the school day. Once you get into tier two, this tier is for a select group of students, so students who need some additional support. Typically for support services personnel, these are kids that have been identified as needing some additional support.

And usually those supports are provided in a group setting. And so again, small number of students, isn’t, isn’t a accommodation that is applied to all students, and typically provided in a group setting. these may include, Small group settings

such as maybe a counseling session, with a group talking specifically [00:04:00 ] about an issue that’s on campus or on the academic side.

It could be a small group session, small, to provide additional support with reading or additional supports with math. So it MTSS really accommodates kids. In every path that they’re on, in the setting and really covers them as a whole child. When we’re looking at tier three interventions, those interventions are really very specific and individualized to a student.

So, if you’re looking at health in particular, these are gonna be kiddos who have five oh fours or who have IEPs or who have specialized healthcare plans, for chronic medical conditions. On the academic side, you would see again, IEPs with academic accommodations or five oh fours with accommodations, to support these kids so that they can, be successful.

[00:04:51 ] Sandie Morgan: I love that. And so now I’m looking at your job title and this word that’s in it, [00:05:00 ] integrated student wellness. What does that mean in your everyday administration?

[00:05:08 ] Andrea Foster: So I, when I am doing programming or providing professional development, or really working collaboratively across Orange County, I’m looking at how health integrates with the whole child. you know, you can’t just look at the child in, in one, domain. You know, we talk about Maslow’s hierarchy of need, and you have to meet all of those needs before.

Anyone can be successful and actualize, their potential. And so, for integrated health, I’m really looking at where health is a cross section with all of these other components. So whether it be mental health, whether it be housing, whether it be, other things that are going on in their lives, as well as their academic status.

So how do we integrate all of this for the success of the student?

[00:05:58 ] Sandie Morgan: and when we’re [00:06:00 ] looking at different school environments and trying to integrate this when they have challenges at home? I think we put a lot of our hope in the ability of our schools to become a safety net, and our Ensure Justice Conference was titled This Year, safety Nets.

We’re thinking about online safety to some extent, but just community safety nets. How can we be more.I guess my question is how can we help in those integrated ’cause I think the community has to know how to be part of that MTSS model.

[00:06:48 ] Andrea Foster: So I would say, just being aware of that multi-tiered system of support and how school districts utilize that to support their students. So really being able to understand the [00:07:00 ] language. you wouldn’t necessarily, as a community member or a family member need to know what falls within each of those.

Just knowing that that is. What school districts use as a framework and being able to ask, you know, how can the multi-tiered system of support support my student who is experiencing. Fill in the blank. experiencing homelessness, experiencing, a chronic health condition, experiencing academic needs, experiencing trafficking.

so just really understanding the language so that, so that they know what to ask for when they’re at a school site.

[00:07:40 ] Sandie Morgan: So when I’m thinking about what that looks like, that integrated support, I am thinking about it from a pediatric nursing background and all of my years of communication with school nurses, and there is a [00:08:00 ] major focus, like in that first column in.

MTSS of prevention that, I mean hearing and brushing your teeth and all of those kinds of things. Where does this aspect of prevention fall When we’re trying to help our kids who need a safety net and the school is a key part of that.

[00:08:26 ] Andrea Foster: So I think it’s multi-tiered here. So the first I would say is really being able to identify, and monitor for red flags. And so that’s really important. and part of that is. For school district is really providing that training so that personnel are aware of what those red flags are and understand what it looks like to identify patterns, and then be able to build a safety net, of trusting relationships.

You know, creating a, a calm environment, a [00:09:00 ] non-judgmental space where students feel comfortable to be able to share information, whether that’s in the health office, their. Counselor, their social worker, their teacher, really everyone on a school site is responsible, for creating this safe space and building these relationships with students.

and then using open-ended, language with students, which gives them an opportunity to think, and