Caring for Student Health By Naomi Dillon It makes perfect
sense: If you don’t feel well, you won’t perform well.
Professional athletes know this. Medical professionals know
this. Moms and dads know this. And in an increasing number of
public schools, district officials know it, too. And many are
doing something about it, in the form of more than 2,000 school-
based health centers across the nation. Known also by their
acronym (SBHCs), these clinics take many shapes and forms,
sometimes occupying a wing in a school building, a mobile unit
on school grounds, or an old shuttered campus retrofitted as a
modern medical facility. Most provide preventative and wellness
care, although more are adding mental health, dental, and eye
care services to their list of offerings. “Lots of times, people
like to describe them as a doctor’s office, but often they are
more comprehensive than that,” says Linda Juszczak, executive
director of the National Assembly on School-Based Health Care.
Numerous studies have shown that SBHCs