School Based Health Center

In 2009, the Hillsboro School District, in collaboration with the Washington County Commission on Children and Families, was awarded a school-based health center planning grant from the state of Oregon. Following that year of initial exploration and community meetings, it was determined that Hillsboro would seek to open a school-based health center, so year two of the planning grant was initiated with efforts focused on identifying a location--ultimately determined to be Century High School. At the same time, a federal grant application was submitted and awarded for the purchasing and siting of the building itself.

Throughout the 2011-12 school year, efforts were under way to secure proposals for the building and site work that would match our resources. After three rounds of RFPs the District finally received workable bids, and, at their August 28, 2012, meeting, the Hillsboro School Board unanimously approved the bids, allowing the work to officially begin.

School-based health centers have a 25-year history in Oregon and there are currently 63 operating centers across the state. Centers are run independently of the school district and even of the school whose grounds they occupy, but schools and other community organizations are integral partners. Early on, Tuality Healthcare agreed to be a major benefactor, and since then we have secured Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center to serve as the medical sponsor. Virginia Garcia and LifeWorks Northwest will manage and staff the center, and handle all billing for services. Generous grants have also been received from the Kaiser Community Foundation at Northwest Health Foundation, and PacificSource Charitable Foundation. Other partners include Lifeworks Northwest, Washington County Mental Health, and several others.

School-Based Health Center Policy Revision on 2/27/18

At their meeting on Tuesday, February 27, 2018, the Hillsboro School Board voted to revise Policy JHC: Student Health Services and Requirements to allow for the provision of contraceptive services, in accordance with the law.

To accomplish this, the Board approved a vast simplification of the verbiage that was in the existing policy to now simply say that: "School-based health clinics will provide all health services in accordance with Oregon laws and the most current version of the Oregon School-Based Health Centers Standards for Certification."

Some key points about this revision are below:

• This policy revision does not impact the services provided within Hillsboro schools - no District nurse or school health assistant has the ability or authority to provide contraceptives or contraceptive prescriptions to students. This only applies to the school-based health center, which is a stand-alone building on Century High School's campus operated by the Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center.
• In accordance with Oregon state law, students who are 15 or older are able to seek and consent to their own medical care at any health care facility.
• Students will be able to request contraceptives and contraceptive education in the course of an appointment with the school-based health center's medical provider.
• Depending on the type and availability of contraceptive requested, these will be provided on site (e.g. condoms, Norplant, patch, etc.) or via prescription (e.g. birth control pills).
• Condoms will not be available to simply walk in and grab from a bowl on the reception desk.
• Abortions are never conducted at school-based health centers.