The full version of this story, published by Healthy Schools Campaign, is available at https://healthyschoolscampaign.org/policy/an-action-plan-for-reducing-absences-due-to-asthma/. Below is just an introduction.

Asthma kept Stephanie Godbolt’s grandson John home from school time and time again. John’s school, Tench Tilghman Elementary, serves 425 students, more than 95 percent of whom are black and 95 percent of whom also qualify for free or reduced price lunch. The school sits in Baltimore’s Patterson Park neighborhood on the city’s southwest side, just a few blocks away from Johns Hopkins Hospital. John’s asthma got so bad, he was missing nearly a week of school each and every month for six months. And he was losing ground academically.