School Health investments provide critical medical, dental, and mental health services to help support student health and academic success.

Early this month, Public Health – Seattle & King County (PHSKC) announced that 29 School-Based Health Center (SBHC) services will be available to Seattle Public Schools students this fall, including 8 elementary schools and 21 middle and high schools campuses. This announcement included the opening of two new centers at Lowell Elementary and Nova High School.

SBHCs are part of the K-12 Health investments under the Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise (FEPP) levy passed by voters in 2018. These investments offer comprehensive medical and mental healthcare, including routine primary care, vaccinations, counseling, and some dental services. SBHCs are designed to promote early intervention, prevention, and treatment of health-related barriers to learning and life success and increase the number of students graduating prepared for the post-secondary pathway of their choice.

The school district’s decision to implement 100% remote learning this fall hasn’t changed the health care needs of students and, if anything, many students may be missing out on the sports physicals or routine immunizations they would typically get in the fall. As such, Seattle Public Schools (SPS) made the decision to open their buildings for SBHC access, and families should know that students enrolled in SPS can receive services at any of the open SBHCs, not just at the school where a student is enrolled.

PHSKC coordinates the network of SBHC clinics (including five additional clinics across King County located outside SPS) and directly operates three of the Seattle SBHCs. The other 26 Seattle clinics are staffed and operated by community health-care providers, which compete through a Request for Application process managed by PHSKC and funded in part by the FEPP levy.

This fall, while school buildings remain closed for in-person learning, SBHCs are providing in-person medical and mental health services on-campus and at community-based clinics as well as offering web and phone-based telehealth appointments. Dental services are available to all SPS-enrolled students and will be accessible at the Mercer Middle School and Chief Sealth High School clinics. Staff at SBHCs will also be supporting students with referrals for other basic needs such as food security. New protocols for COVID-19 have been introduced at the clinics, including staggered appointment times and limiting the number of people accessing the facility at any one time.

Appointments are strongly encouraged. Please call the health center before visiting. A list of all 29 clinics with phone numbers for appointment scheduling is below.

SBHC Locations at Seattle Public Schools:

DEEL would like to thank Seattle Public Schools and all our health partners serving Seattle students through this effort:

• Public Health – Seattle & King County
• Country Doctor Community Health Services
• International Community Health Services
• Kaiser Permanente Washington
• Neighborcare Health
• Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic (Seattle Children’s Hospital)
• Swedish Medical Center