The Little Rock School District's Stephens Elementary is not only the new home to pupils previously assigned to Franklin Elementary, but it is also the site of a newly expanded, community-supported health center for children at three schools and their siblings.
The Stephens Elementary School-Based Health Center, 3700 W. 18th St., is already in this new school year providing physical and behavioral health services to children that go beyond the care given in the school's more traditional health room.
The clinic previously operated at the 270-pupil Franklin Elementary, which was one of three schools closed at the end of the 2015-16 school year to cut costs, district leaders said. A fourth school, an elementary, was reconfigured to become the district's alternative education center.
"Last year Little Rock School District had some closures and some tough decisions to make," Stephens Principal Phillip Carlock said Monday. "I can say that one of the benefits of one of the school closings is that we were not only able to bring the health clinic to Stephens, but we are also able to illuminate and highlight some of the things it has to offer for our students."
The clinic is a way to keep students in school "with no excuses," Carlock said. "Our kids are able to get their needs met right here, along with their academic and social needs, as well."
The clinic is the only school-based health clinic in Pulaski County, said Margo Bushmiaer, coordinator of health services for the Little Rock district.
Exams by a licensed advanced practice nurse, sports physicals, prescriptions, vaccines and different laboratory work -- such urinalyses and strep tests -- are being done at the clinic that is open to more than 500 children at Stephens as well as to Bale and Wakefield elementary pupils who are enrolled in the University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Children International program.
Arkansas Children's Hospital is continuing to partner with the Little Rock School District at the new site to provide primary care for the pupils and their brothers and sisters. About 20 patients a week are expected to receive services at the health center.
Preferred Family Healthcare, New Beginnings Behavioral Health Services and the Pointe Outpatient Behavioral Health Services are on site to help children with anger, anxiety and depression issues as well as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Little Rock Superintendent Mike Poore said the community partnerships that established the "top-of-the-line clinic" help eliminate illness as a distraction from student learning.
"Wow, what an impact this has," Poore said.
Marcy Doderer, Arkansas Children's Hospital president and chief executive officer, said "children's health in Arkansas is not always a pretty picture."
The state ranked 45th out of 50 in a recent Annie E. Casey Foundation study, a report that Doderer called embarrassing and unacceptable.
"We have to figure out how to get to these families and to these children where they live, where they learn and where they play," Doderer said. "That's why it makes sense to have a school-based health clinic."
The clinic helps keep the kids at the school and the parents at work, and helps keep families out of the emergency rooms at night, Doderer said.
"It starts right here at Stephens Elementary," she said. "This is where we intend to help change the story."
The clinic started at Franklin in 2013, Allison Hester, advanced practice nurse at the Stephens clinic, said Monday. The clinic is funded with an Arkansas Department of Education Tobacco Excise grant.
Services, which are only provided to children with written consent from their parents, are billed to the child's insurance provider, but children are not denied services if they don't have insurance or their families can't pay.
Any records on health services to a child at the clinic are forwarded to the child's primary care physician if there is one.
"We want to make sure kids have a medical home," said Hester, who works with clinic manager Carla Litzsey.
Metro on 10/10/2017