Vaughn Learning Center Offers Campus Site for Medical Clinic

The Vaughn Next Century Learning Center has offered $100,000 and school facilities in hopes of securing an on-campus medical clinic to serve uninsured northeast Valley residents, school and county officials said Wednesday.

County officials, including Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, said they are interested in teaming the school with the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to establish a clinic, but cautioned the idea was still at an early stage.

Officials said the health center could receive additional support from a proposed partnership between the county, school districts and federal government designed to steer about $90 million into schools for treating the estimated 700,000 uninsured children in the county.

Vaughn, the LAUSD’s first charter school, could serve as a model for other area schools, county and school officials said. The center would serve Vaughn’s 1,200 students--three-quarters of whom are uninsured--and possibly all uninsured northeast Valley residents.

Yaroslavsky and Vaughn Principal Yvonne Chan said county physicians or nurse practitioners at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar could work at the center and offer general pediatric care, vision and hearing testing, immunizations and, ideally, specialty treatment in common childhood ailments such as asthma.

“The bottom line is that kids at school are not getting adequate health care,” Yaroslavsky said. “Kids who are not healthy are not able to compete and they are not able to learn.”

Yaroslavsky and other officials said the amount of county funding needed for the proposed center at Vaughn is unknown. Other logistics, such as building modifications, also need to be worked out.

Vaughn is an ideal site for a health center, officials said, because most of its students come from low-income families. One key indicator of the poverty level is that virtually all of the school’s students are eligible for free lunches.

“Students come to school sick and they can’t concentrate and learn,” Chan said. “Their parents don’t have anyplace to take them to.”

The $100,000 comes from private donations and Vaughn’s existing budget, Chan said. The space available at Vaughn is about 1,800 square feet, or the size of two classrooms. The space, part of a new community center, would need to be refashioned to accommodate medical services, such as adding an area to wash hands.

In addition to general care, Chan said she envisions focusing on prevention.

“Why wait until a student has a cavity?” she said. “Teach them how to take care of their teeth. Give them free dental floss. Why wait until crisis?”