School Based Health Center and the Parent Child Relationship

Currently, most parents know when their child is having any health issues because they are the ones taking them to the Doctor.  That is about to change in Round Lake. Round Lake School District 116 has now received a $500,000 grant to start the building process of their School Based Health Clinic.

What is a school based health clinic?  A school based health center is health clinic operated inside a school.  It can provide the following services:

Acute care Cancer screening Counseling Dental care Immunizations Management of chronic conditions Mental health screenings Minor injury diagnosis Physicals Reproductive health services Substance abuse services many other services

What are reproductive health services?  These services include contraceptives, pregnancy tests, STD (sexually transmitted disease) testing, abortion pills, and abortion referrals.

Will the district notify parents when any services are rendered?  No, they will not.  These clinics use Illinois law which prevents them from notifying parents for medication, contraceptives and even in the cases of an abortion referral.  The privacy of the child is maintained even if the rights of the parents to know how or why their child is being treated are not.  Parents can only find out if their child decides to tell them.  That’s right your rights as a parent and gone if you child decides to hide any of this information from you.

Has the district had much input from the community?  The district has been planning for several years with the public only finding out about this in 2010.  They have made some presentations since to the local villages and a few more presentation to district parents.  For the most part however, the work has been done behind the scenes and out of sight of the public and parental view.

I attended both school board meetings and a couple presentations.  It was clear there was a direct targeting of this district due to its ethnical makeup and teen pregnancy rates. The slide image below was given at one of the presentations showing a 70% Hispanic population in the district.

How far along is this project?  The district was just awarded a $500,000 grant to build the clinic.  However, the board must still approve the building project and have it completed by December 2014.

Is there a chance to stop this project? Yes, but the odds are against stopping at this stage.  To stop it, there needs to be new school board members elected on April 9, 2013 to stop  the building and there must be a large swell of public outcry from the parents of the district itself.

When will the next chance be to stand up against this infringement on my parent child relationship? There are 2 more chance in the coming weeks.  The dates are below:

Tuesday, January 15 from 10 – 11:30 am
Thursday, January 17 from 7 – 8:30 pm
Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center
2007 Civic Center Way
Round Lake Beach, IL 60073

Can I do anything if I am not in Round Lake?  Even if you are not in Round Lake, many other school districts have started or will start exploring have a school based health clinic in their school district as well.  Please contact your local school board and find out if they have started any planning.  Even if they have not started planning, you can still tell them you are opposed to the interference of the relationship with your child via a school based health clinic.  In addition, please inform us about the status in your school district be emailing editor@championsnews.net.