CHICAGO — Here’s a devastating fact for youth living in underserved neighborhoods: Poor health can translate into poor school attendance, lower educational achievement and a shorter life.
Now here’s a better one: School-based healthcare offers this group a chance to beat the odds.
Offered through safety-net clinics, school-based health centers provide primary, preventive and mental-health services to the children and youth who can’t otherwise access quality healthcare.
The centers are powerful tools for addressing health equity because they not only increase access to care but also promote educational attainment.
Related: In New Orleans, a case study in how school, health care decentralization affect neediest children
Research shows that kids in schools with health centers are 22 percent more likely to have had a healthcare visit in the past year.
As an administrator for three school-based health centers serving five schools and 1,400 students on Chicago’s West Side, I see the benefits directly.
A new ninth-grader at one school who reported frequent visits during the school day to the emergency department for breathing problems was able to receive a correct diagnosis of asthma in a Chicago area in-school health center. From there, the student started on daily medication and missed fewer school days.
A 12th grader who had been receiving care in the school health center since sixth grade said that without the mental-health care she received, she would have dropped out of school.
While numbers have grown over the years, among the 125,000-plus primary and secondary schools in the U.S., only slightly over 2,300 have a school-based health center. According to the Illinois Department of Public Health, there are 66 school health centers in Illinois, 32 of which are in Chicago.
According to the national School-Based Health Alliance, more than 80 percent of students ages 12 to 18 in schools with clinics receive age-appropriate screenings and care for important childhood issues such as mental health, immunizations, oral health and asthma.
U.S. children miss over 13 million school days yearly due to asthma, according to the School-Based Health Alliance. But studies show that kids with asthma in schools with health centers miss far less school than their asthmatic peers in schools without clinics.
One study showed that urban high school students were 21 times more likely to access mental-health services in a school health center than a free-standing center.
Related: Nonwhite students slow to seek mental health counseling for which they’re more in need
The experience of a recent Chicago high school graduate exemplifies the challenges youth with mental-health issues face in accessing care. After numerous hospitalizations for depression and psychosis with no help from his grandfather guardian, this student found his way to one of our school health centers. Through assessment and care coordination by school health center clinicians, the student successfully engaged in much-needed psychiatric follow up and was linked to supported living. He was able to graduate on time.
“The Hallways to Health Act is a comprehensive bill that would provide federal support for school health centers.”
If the symbiotic impact of good health on education and education on good health, and of both on society, is clear, it is curious why more school systems have not opened school-based health centers.
It’s true that a school-based health center costs more to operate than a traditional health center. Start-up and operational costs often surpass revenue generated. School health centers serve students regardless of ability to pay, and the majority of those served are Medicaid-insured or have no insurance.
Most school health centers rely on grant funding from governmental and private sources, with federal funding comprising a little more than 50 percent of school health center operating budgets nationally.
But school health centers increase access to healthcare for our nation’s most vulnerable kids while containing healthcare costs and improving surrounding communities. In the long run, this saves money.
It’s time for school-based health centers to receive more attention. They are simply a smart investment.
Those who work and advocate for education and healthcare have a duty to join forces and address the serious threats to this model of safety-net healthcare. Legislators need to understand the intersection of health and education, and support legislation that will fund and support school health centers.
Related: In Mississippi, lack of school nurses a threat to health, education
Through maintaining the Affordable Care Act — which has expanded insurance coverage for vulnerable children and provided a source of revenue for school health centers — and supporting Medicaid policies that promote school health, legislators can bolster their financial sustainability.
The Hallways to Health Act is a comprehensive bill that would provide federal support for school health centers. The bill was first introduced in 2016 and reintroduced in February of last year, with no action on it since then. Legislators have the opportunity to support a sensible model of healthcare proven to keep children healthy and on track academically.
In 1994, former U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders said, “We can’t educate children who are not healthy, and we can’t keep them healthy if they aren’t educated.”
By providing access to quality healthcare where children and youth spend the majority of their time — in schools — we are giving them a chance to achieve better health and academic success. We are giving them a chance to close the unacceptable life expectancy gap that many face.
We want that for all children.
This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up here for our newsletter.
Sally Lemke is director of the Rush University Medical Center’s School-Based Health Centers, a nurse practitioner, an instructor in the Rush University College of Nursing and a Public Voices Fellow through The OpEd Project.
At The Hechinger Report, we publish thoughtful letters from readers that contribute to the ongoing discussion about the education topics we cover. Please read our guidelines for more information. We will not consider letters that do not contain a full name and valid email address. You may submit news tips or ideas here without a full name, but not letters.
By submitting your name, you grant us permission to publish it with your letter. We will never publish your email address. You must fill out all fields to submit a letter.