Hillsboro Explores School Health Clinics

February 3, 2010

The Hillsboro School District is conducting exploratory meetings to gauge interest in the possibility of adding a school-based health center at one or more of its schools.

Adolescents in particular are the least likely to seek help for health concerns through traditional office-based settings, and advocates of a school-based care say many suffer from conditions that affect their ability to learn effectively.

About 13 percent of Oregon’s school children do not have insurance, and 55 school-based health centers in the state provide comprehensive physical, mental and preventive health services to youth and adolescents in a school setting.

The centers traditionally accept health insurance but also offer sliding fees for patients without insurance.

At a Jan. 27 meeting, committee members looking into the feasibility of a Hillsboro clinic said the health centers help children who otherwise would not get care, get them back to the classroom faster and lessen the demand on parents to take time off to get children medical care needs. The committee consists of representatives from the Washington County Commission on Children and Families, the faith community, the medical community, and various community groups.

The committee found that stu dents who are sick do not come to school, and even if they do they are not at their highest productivity. Vision problems are also rampant, affecting many students who cannot see what is being written by the teacher at the front of the class.

Forest Grove, Tigard-Tualatin and Beaverton school districts operate school-based clinics in the county.

The school-based clinics are existing medical clinics that operate on a school ground, said Gus Balderas, assistant superintendent of support services.

For instance, in Forest Grove, Virginia Garcia does the hiring and maintains the liability. They have the billing expertise and other structures in place to take the pressure off of the district, but the community does have some say over who is hired.

Surveys show that Oregonians rated 10 of the 12 potential services provided by SBHCs as somewhat or very important.

Superintendent Mike Scott has already made a directive that contraceptives will not be distributed at any Hillsboro school-based clinic.

Clinicians are licensed clinical workers with no prescriptive powers. The community puts together the policies and procedures, and the clinics are expected to abide by them.

The committee also found the clinics have had no appreciable effect on the business of local physicians.

In fact, several local physicians have become members of advisory boards.