The BCHC data platform’s harmonized data cover a wide range of topics and can be a useful resource for educators to explore real-world health data and connect classroom concepts to the health of urban communities across the U.S..  We are highlighting examples of assignments and activities that incorporate  platform data to help educators engage their students with city health data.

Explore these resources and see how the platform can support learning and discussion in your classroom!

Classroom Resources

At a recent webinar held on Tuesday July 21, 2026, public health leaders from Denver, Houston, and Cleveland talked of the many ways that local health departments are using this data platform to improve the health of their residents. Click here for a short blog summarizing the discussion or click here for a recording of the webinar.

The data platform has been updated to with additional year of data for childhood lead poisoning metrics - Child Lead Testing and Child Lead Levels, 5+mcg/dL

Additionally, a new metric has been added - Child Lead Levels, 3.5+mcg/dL- Percent of children with blood lead levels over 3.5 mcg/dL. The new metric reflects the updated blood lead reference level recommended by the CDC and provides more current measure for identifying children with elevated blood lead level. See the latest data here.  

The Big Cities Health Coalition and Drexel University’s Urban Health Collaborative held a webinar on Tuesday May 19, 2026.  The webinar briefly oriented users to the new data on the platform and demonstrated features of the platform.  Click here for a recording of this event.

The data platform has been updated to include all available data for all metrics from 2010 to 2024!

Enhancements were made to better understand racial inequity in sexually transmitted diseases. These include the addition of data by race/ethnic sub-groups for STD prevalence and a new metric- Syphilis During Pregnancy- which informs of the risk of transmission of syphilis to the fetus. Learn more about syphilis during pregnancy for your city here.

After 12 years of exponential growth, new data suggest that — in the population as a whole — overdose rates were relatively stable in 2022 and 2023. Yet the upward trend is continuing in some communities who have been racially marginalized due to historic and ongoing systemic oppression. See here for the blog and infographic.

Our new infographic uses platform data from 2010 to 2022 and documents lives lost due to synthetic drugs which are cheap and rapidly produced and available on streets across big cities. See our infographic and our blog post advocating for treating drug use and dependence as a health and social issue, and strengthening surveillance and early warning systems.

The Big Cities Health Coalition and Drexel University’s Urban Health Collaborative held a webinar on Tuesday July 1, 2025.  Speakers talked of the many ways that local health departments are using this data platform. Click here for a short blog summarizing the discussion or click here for a recording of the webinar.

Our platform was recently updated with data from CDC-funded childhood lead poisoning surveillance programs. A blog and infographic show wide disparities in lead poisoning across the cities and highlights factors that underlie the highest rates. 

In BCHC cities, lives lost to gun deaths rose 65% in the past twelve years, with huge increases during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gun violence disproportionately claimed the lives of Black people and was highest in cities with higher poverty, unemployment, and racial segregation. Learn more from our blog post, infographic, and data brief.