Washington State reimbursed $9.4 million to school districts participating in the Medicaid Administrative Match program for time spent on school-based Medicaid activities in the 2005-06 school years. These federal dollars were disbursed directly to participating school districts by the Health and Recovery Services Administration. Findings indicate the overall percent of time spent by school staff on Medicaid activities is nearly 3 percent. Smaller school districts spend slightly more time, probably due to higher percentages of children that may be eligible for Medicaid services. Larger school districts have dedicated staff members who work more closely with Medicaid-eligible children. These nurses, social workers, school counselors, and administrative employees spend far more time than teachers on Medicaid activities (7.3 percent of time compared to 1.8 percent for teachers). The dollar amounts recovered by designated versus non-designated staff are about equal. The dollars recovered were equivalent of about 188 staff positions statewide in the 2005-06 school year, or 1.7 positions on average for each school that submitted a time study.
