The Cleveland Metropolitan School District opened three more health clinics inside school buildings in an effort to expand healthcare options for students, families and staff.
The three clinics are at Anton Grdina PreK-8 School, John Marshall High School and John F. Kennedy High School.
The district now has a total of six in-school health clinics. Two others opened last year – at Glenville High School and Clara E. Westropp PreK-8 School – while another at Mound PreK-8 School has been around since 2013.
MetroHealth runs five of the clinics, while Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital operates the one at John F. Kennedy High School.
By putting clinics inside schools, district leaders hope students will be more likely to receive health care like well-child visits, since they won’t have to leave the building for the appointments. And it can save parents from needing to leave work.
“Our thought was that if students could get care and services at this school, they would miss fewer school days,” said Dr. Christine Alexander-Rager, the president and CEO of MetroHealth, who also founded the clinic at Mound. “They’d be more up-to-date on preventive health care and immunizations and annual checkups that we know are critical to a child’s growth and development.”
Clinics to be free of charge and without co-pays
Students that take part in the school health program are 97% more likely to have completed a well-child visit compared to kids not in the program, said Alexander during a ribbon cutting for the clinic at the John Marshall High School on Thursday. A spokesperson with MetroHealth said this data is drawn from the historical use of the organization’s school health program, which has primarily provided care to students via mobile health clinics.
Timothy Primus, the principal at the John Marshall School of Engineering, hopes the effort will also diminish health issues he sees in school. As principal, he has to ride along with kids who need to leave school to go to the hospital – which he estimates happens twice a year. Some of those instances, such as seizures, may be helped by having a clinic on-site, he said.
“It’s been situations where kids needed medical treatment for a seizure and a parent couldn’t get an appointment for a month, a month and a half out,” Primus said. “With this, I’m sure we can expedite that time.”
Plus, the clinics will operate free of charge and without co-pays for students and families, said Alexander. The program will bill Medicaid, said Josh McLaughlin, the director of school health at MetroHealth. Philanthropic and state grants are helping cover other operating costs, he added.
‘We have to stand in the gap’
Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb and Cleveland City Council used $3.7 million of their COVID recovery funds to pay for renovations to build the three new clinics. At a ribbon cutting Thursday, Bibb said the clinics are a move to make sure students are healthy when they go to school.
“We have to stand in the gap and do what’s right and ensure we have a strong social safety net,” Bibb said. “Especially when we see these attacks on our social safety nets from across the country.”
Cleveland Metropolitan School District and Say Yes! Cleveland, a local scholarship program, encouraged the city to make the investment following a 2022 report on the impact of COVID-19 on Cleveland’s education landscape.
The report, published by community groups such as the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation, found increased absenteeism and rising mental health concerns among Cleveland students. It recommended “providing integrated health services—including mental health—in all schools.”
How do I get my kid seen?
Parents need to fill out a consent form with the school district to allow their child to be seen by on-site providers.
After that, Cleveland Metropolitan Schools advises parents to contact their school nurse to schedule an appointment.
Parents do not have to be present during the health care visits at schools, though they can if they want to be, according to the district.
When can my child go to the health clinic?
The five school-based health care centers operated by MetroHealth currently have clinical staff in schools approximately two days a week, McLaughlin said. To find out more about the clinics’ schedules, call (216) 957-1307 or reach out to the school nurse.
MetroHealth clinics have both pre-scheduled appointments based on referrals and same-day walk-in appointments available, according to a spokesperson with MetroHealth.
The health care center operated by Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital at John F. Kennedy High School aims to open at the end of September, said Dr. Roopa Thakur, the medical director of the Cleveland Clinic School-Based Health Program. It will be open five days a week, she said.
Who can get seen?
The facilities operated by MetroHealth are open to students at the school as well as their families, McLaughlin said. Staff can also be seen there.
The center operated by Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital will focus on students at first, Thakur said. The goal is to expand it to staff in the future.
What care is available at the in-school clinics?
MetroHealth lists the following services as available at its in-school clinics:
- Annual physicals
- Sports physicals
- Immunizations
- Care for chronic conditions, including asthma, allergies, diabetes and seizure disorders
- Routine lab tests
- Prescription medications
- Injury/illness care
- Mental/behavioral health
The Cleveland Clinic Children’s center at John F. Kennedy will offer a similar list of services as well as vision screenings, Thakur said. A pediatric psychologist will be on-site three days out of the week, Thakur said.