Columbia Public Schools and Clarity Healthcare Launches Scholar Clinic

The Why

An important part of scholar achievement is health. Scholars who have basic health needs struggle to attend school regularly and maintain focus on learning. In Missouri, 14.6% of children below the poverty line lacked health insurance in 2021. Out of CPS's more than 18,000 students, 41.1% (7,478) qualify for free and reduced-price lunch. In Boone County, where 5,382 children reside in households below the federal poverty level.

Columbia Public Schools began to discuss the need to create an avenue for scholars to address health needs, including immunizations and additional medical care after seeing the school nurse. Columbia Public Schools spent the last year investigating options and developing a plan. District administrators and several members of the community visited a similar school-based health center operating in Hannibal, Missouri, to learn more about operations and best practices.

The Partnership

Open to all Columbia Public Schools’ scholars, the Scholar Clinic will be operated in partnership with Clarity, which is affiliated with Burrell Behavioral Health. The collaboration is the result of a partnership created to develop a comprehensive system of school-based primary health care services to promote and ensure physical health care of students. This partnership includes the establishment of a health care center, while also addressing academic, social, and physical health in an integrated approach designed to maximize student success. The center will be located in a portion of the district's Field Building and will be available to all CPS students. Services provided through the health center are being offered in addition to the health services already offered by CPS, including school nurses and individualized nursing services provided to students with special needs. There is no budgetary impact to Columbia Public Schools for the operation of this partnership. Clarity is exclusively responsible for the expenses of supplies for health services, as well as the training and travel of their personnel. Clarity has invested more than $400,000 to build and outfit the clinic for operations.

About the Clinic

The clinic offers a spectrum of services, including primary care, ophthalmology, substance use disorder, and dental services. The facility layout comprises a lab, two primary care exam rooms, and one dedicated to vision services (optometry).

The clinic, staffed by a pediatric nurse practitioner, a medical assistant, and a community health worker, will provide primary care services to CPS students. Additionally, the community health worker will address broader needs, including insurance enrollment, food or housing insecurity, employment, transportation, and connections to resource organizations in Columbia.

The clinic will significantly impact low-income, uninsured, underinsured, and Medicaid-covered students. Clarity will establish a sliding fee schedule as determined by the Federal Poverty Guidelines in accordance with Health Resources and Service Administration. A sliding fee discount program allows individuals and families who are uninsured or underinsured to receive services for a fee that is adjusted based on their ability to pay, assuring that no one will be denied access to services. Children that are on the district's free or reduced-price school lunch program are deemed to be on a sliding fee, with those in zero-income households receiving care at no cost. For those that do not qualify for service fee waivers, Clarity will be solely responsible for billing patients and/or third-party payers for all services rendered. The clinic’s sliding fee scale will reduce visit costs for the uninsured.

Primary Care Services:

• Acute visits (sore throat, fever, sprained ankle, etc.)
• Preventative visits
• Sports physicals
• Vision services
• Free vaccines through the Vaccines for Children (VFC) program
• In-house lab services (strep tests, influenza, etc.)
• Reference lab services

Counseling Services:

• Behavioral assessments and evaluations
• Referrals to counseling sessions for individuals and/or family
• Referrals to trauma-focused counseling with licensed or licensed-eligible counselors specializing in trauma
• Referrals to substance use disorder counseling services and treatment