North Carolina Student Community Health Alliance (NCSCHA)
Centers
School Health Centers provide access to affordable, quality physical and mental health care. They provide early identification and treatment of disease and injury. Centers are linked to a decrease in health-related tardiness and school absences, decreased discipline problems and suspensions, and a reduction in school drop-out rates. They focus on prevention so that health problems and risky behaviors can be caught early or prevented altogether. Students are treated quickly and problems caught early so they spend more time in class.
What is a School Health Center?
It is a medical office located on a school campus, that is called a school-based health center, or a free-standing health care center affiliated with schools in the community, that is called a school-linked health center. It employs a variety of professional health care providers for primary care, mental health, nutrition, and health education, as well as administrative staff.
They are sponsored by health care organizations such as hospitals, health departments, universities, community health centers, and other non-profit health care organizations. All centers require parents to sign written consents for their children to receive the full scope of services offered. Centers are monitored by advisory committees to ensure compliance with standards, to evaluate services offered, and to make policy recommendations.