In 2000, Teachers for Healthy Kids was founded by the California Association of Health Plans and California Teachers Association to develop a school-based program to enroll families in health coverage. It was generously funded in 2002  by The California Endowment The goal was to address the health coverage needs of students through school-based outreach that promotes the enrollment of students in no or low cost health insurance Teachers recognized they “could not teach to an empty desk”. Student absenteeism, often resulting from preventable health problems, impacts school performance. Since its inception, THK Health Outreach has been implemented in school districts throughout California, resulting in enrollments of thousands of children in health insurance programs.  California has gone from about 34% of eligible children enrolled in Medi-Cal to about 95% enrollment.

Over the years, THK has developed and implemented a number of projects. Communities for Healthy Kids (CHK), a League of Cities companion project to THK, was initiated to work with city and county governments to develop health outreach programs, which used the THK model. Other projects such as Healthy Air, Healthy Kids were implemented. The project provided teachers and school districts with educational materials and resources to improve the indoor air quality in their schools. The strategies provided range from classroom arrangement tips to impacting school policy.