Kids can’t learn if they don’t feel well. It’s especially challenging if they’re lacking access to basic health care. In our ongoing efforts to raise student achievement, we must tackle these most basic challenges by making it easier for students to receive the health care they need. Last week, a local newspaper highlighted a report funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation which found that Alexandria fell far below statewide health benchmarks in several key areas.
Several students have told me that they have limited access to comprehensive health care due to lack of insurance or other obstacles that make it challenging or inconvenient to receive services. A school-based wellness center, located inside T.C. Williams High School, will help remove some of the barriers.
For the past ten months, a committee with representatives from ACPS, the City of Alexandria, the Alexandria Health Department, Inova, and the PTAs has been developing a plan to relocate the Adolescent Health Center (the Teen Clinic), currently located behind Bradlee Shopping Center, to T.C. Williams High School. This school-based wellness center will be the first of its kind in Virginia!
Creating a Teen Wellness Center inside T.C. Williams will make it easy for students to receive services which will include wellness promotion, mental health/substance abuse services, physical exams (including routine exams and sports physicals), immunizations, treatment for episodic illnesses and sexually transmitted infections, family planning and child health.
The Teen Wellness Center will provide age-appropriate services and follow federal, state and local laws regarding at what age a student can receive care. Although family planning services have been available through the Adolescent Health Clinic for years, many of our students have barriers to accessing the clinic in its current location. The City of Alexandria has one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the state. We must address this issue through education and through other supports.
During this challenging budget time, I’m pleased to say this new wellness center will improve the way we use existing resources. It can serve twice as many teens as are currently served in the Teen Clinic and will allow better collaboration which will lead to better service. ACPS will provide the space (a separate exterior entrance will allow public access to the center), and the City will fund the staff and operating costs at the same level that the Adolescent Health Center is currently funded. The costs for the initial move are estimated to be $50,000 for renovation and $25,000-30,000 for supplies and furnishing. ACPS and the City are partnering to seek grant funding for these costs.
We say in our Strategic Plan that ACPS will provide the environment, resources and commitment to ensure that each and every student succeeds – academically, emotionally, physically and socially. We say that we believe in a culture of collaboration between home, school and community and that every child deserves a healthy, safe, engaging, supportive and challenging learning environment. The Teen Wellness Center is a wonderful example of how we will accomplish our goals. I believe it’s just what the doctor ordered.
It would certainly be great for sports physicals and general health care but my only fear, from talking to some students, is that people who needed/wanted discreet information or care might not go to such a public place.
You mentioned this would be the first clinic of its kind in the entire state. How are other districts with at-risk populations, especially those with lower teen pregnancy numbers than Alexandria, making services available to their students? Thank you.
The beauty of this location in the building is that it shares a hallway with the current clinic, the Scholarship Office and other frequented offices that make a person’s destination very ambiguous. Once inside the health center, all conversations should be completely private.