History of School-Based Health Centers

First, why are school-based health centers important?

• The effect of poor health on student achievement has become a popular issue in contemporary American education.
• Studies have shown that unhealthy diets lead to unhealthy children, and unhealthy children can experience a wide array of learning difficulties (Costante, 2002).
• The role that schools can play in the health of children is great because starting at age 5 or 6, children spend a large proportion of their waking hours at school (Kronenfeld, 2000).
• A National Center for Health Statistics survey of children found that 68% of children whose parents have some graduate school education are healthy, whereas only 35% of children whose parents have less than a high school education were healthy (Kronenfeld, 2000).
• The same survey showed that 64% of children from upper income families are healthy, compared to 35% in low-income families.
• Additionally, children in the lowest income bracket are 2-4 times less likely than those in the highest income bracket to have medical insurance; they are also less likely to have had routine care in the past 2 years, making school clinics a valuable service (Kronenfeld, 2000).

TIMELINE OF THE ISSUE