MALVERN, Ohio — Depending on where you live in Ohio, the drive to the doctor's office can easily exceed more than 30 minutes.
That lack of rural healthcare prompted state leaders and local educators to embark on a new trend across the state: adding healthcare facilities to school campuses.
It's a topic that took center stage during Governor Mike DeWine's State of the State speech earlier this month.
"Another challenge we face is that too many Ohio children and adults live in communities where they do not have easy access to good, basic primary healthcare," DeWine said. "Thanks to a clinic right on school grounds, students are able to schedule appointments with healthcare professionals or walk right in if they are sick."
As part of the Appalachian Children's Health Initiative, the state contributed more than $64 million toward developing community and school-based health clinics.
DeWine said the initiative is slated to help more than 61,000 students and 375,000 residents.
"It’s where people are used to gathering and where people are comfortable going," he said. "They also have a significant impact not just on students’ health, but also on their academic performance, including improved attendance, higher GPAs, grade promotions, better college preparation, and reduced rates of suspension."
In Northeast Ohio, five different school districts received funding.
In Carroll County, Brown Local Schools received more than $2.6 million to build a 3,000-square-foot community wellness center.
Superintendent Mark Scott said the space will feature medical staff on weekdays year-round, even when school is not in session. It's all part of an effort to address healthcare, mental health and addiction.
“It's everything," he said "Our students face a lot of barriers outside the classroom that we don’t have control of, whether it be social media or trauma, and now we’re going to have the tools right here on site to take care of those students."
Scott added the new space will be available to students and those in the community and will even include workout equipment given the lack of fitness facilities nearby.
"Schools at one time were just a place for students to learn and play sports, and now it’s so much more than that," he added.
Scott hopes to see the center open sometime in 2026.
As a working mother of three, Ashley Dorr knows the gymnastics it takes to balance all the appointments for her kids in rural Carroll County. Dorr also serves as a mental health counselor and family support specialist at Brown Local Schools.
“It is difficult," she said. I will say we do have telehealth here, which I’ve utilized with my own kiddos because otherwise, I’m driving 30-35 minutes to take them to an appointment, which means not only they’re missing school but also I’m missing work."
When it comes to focusing on not just the academics in the classroom for students, Dorr and her colleague Lauren Wagner, an elementary school counselor, agree that the upcoming dedicated space will make a huge difference.
"It’s really about supporting the whole child," Wagner explained. "If you don’t have all those pieces together, it’s hard to get anything academically or make that important to them if there’s other things that are not going well."
Ashtabula Area City School District received more than $330,000 to establish a health clinic to provide weekday primary care with a priority toward helping students stay in school.
East Holmes Local School District is one of several districts to benefit from more than $230,000 toward establishing a mobile, in-person and telehealth option for school-based healthcare.
The Claymont City School District in Tuscarawas County received nearly $1.9 million to help build a 2,000-square-foot health center on campus where students and patients could be seen for a variety of reasons, from "routine annual care to chronic disease management for conditions such as asthma or diabetes as well as primary care mental health."
Tuscarawas Valley Local School District received more than $2.2 million to re-purpose its old high school building into a community resource center that will house a school-based health center, senior center, community event space and theater, and a fitness center.
"Our district encompasses 95 square miles, 11 zip codes, a little over 1,300 students, but there’s only one doctor's office within the boundary of our school district," Superintendent Dr. Derek Varansky told News 5. "So it's not easy, especially for parents that work a lot, for students to have access to a medical facility."
Varansky said he hopes to see the facility open by the Fall of 2026.
To learn more about the grant recipients, click here.
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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