One of the most valuable and underappreciated resources that we have here at Southwest is our remarkably accessible School Based Clinic. Open Monday to Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the clinic is available to you whenever you can fit a visit into your schedule. With both walk-in and scheduled appointments available, it’s set up to accommodate whatever your personal needs might entail. In addition to the school year hours, keep in mind that the School Based Clinics at Edison High School and South High School are open for walk-in and scheduled appointments Monday through Thursday during the summer, while Roosevelt, Camden, and Washburn are open for appointments scheduled by phone call. Any Minneapolis Public Schools student can visit these locations.
The School Based Clinics are absolutely essential to have in our schools because of the free or low-cost healthcare services that they provide. If someone does not have access to health insurance, there are funds to cover the costs of the services, so no one has to worry about an inability to pay. Some things, such as immunizations, are free for Native American students and students with no insurance or public insurance. This is indispensable because, according to the 2023-24 Minneapolis School Based Clinics Annual Report, 20% of Clinic clients are uninsured and 48% have public insurance. The full list of services can be found on the minneapolismn.gov website, but some examples are sports physicals, well-child and teen check ups, STI testing and treatment, nutrition guidance, and mental health services. The clinic also provides the sexual health education that we receive in our health class.
When asked why students should know about the Southwest School Based Clinic, Terrah Lee, a Public Health Specialist for the City of Minneapolis School Based Clinics Health Department, mentions the reproductive health services such as birth control, condoms, and Plan B. She also highlights the fact that students “don’t have to miss school in order to get their needs met at a doctor’s appointment” and the Minors Consent Law, which I think is especially vital for students to be aware of. Lee explains it as a law that “makes it so young people can get sexual health services without parent or guardian consent, which is important because not all cultures and families believe that people should be on birth control for various reasons, and so this allows young people to make a choice for themselves and for their own bodies and to still get their needs met.”
An additional aspect of the Minor’s Consent Law is the confidentiality around any sexual health services, which includes STI testing and treatment, birth control, condoms, Plan B, or even just asking questions about healthy relationships. This means that if you are a minor, the information that you visited the clinic for any of the aforementioned reasons will not be disclosed to anyone, even your parents or guardians. Things like vaccines and sports physicals do require parent or guardian consent but beginning at age 16 you do not need parent or guardian consent for mental health services, which also become confidential. Confidentiality applies to a large portion of clinic visits, considering the 2023-24 Minneapolis School Based Clinics Annual Report states that 49% of the visits were for sexual health and 30% were for mental health.
The Minor’s Consent Law is not meant to encourage any students to be dishonest with their parents or guardians, but is rather a protection for students who have to keep the sexual health services that they are receiving confidential for their safety. All of the Minneapolis School Based Clinics serve a vast range of students of different ages, genders, sexualities, races, religions, and family situations, and not everybody has the same freedom at home to make choices about their sexual health and body. The clinic provides a safe space for students to feel in control of these things, completely free of judgement. Included in the previously mentioned annual report was a client comment on the best part of utilizing the clinic: “The support and love I feel. I never feel judged.”
The final thing to consider about what the School Based Clinic offers is that it is a place that anyone can go to ask any questions you may have about topics like relationships, sexual health, birth control, and consent. Lee reassures that “You don’t have to know anything before you come down here and you’re not going to look stupid, we’re not going to make fun of you… We’re happy to talk with you about any questions that you have. Even if it’s just like, ‘I think this might be an unhealthy thing that my friend or my boyfriend or my girlfriend does or whatever, I’m happy to talk through those things with you all and we’re always happy to help you guys with whatever you need.”
The only requirement to utilize the various services that the clinics offer, besides being an MPS student, is filling out the necessary forms. There are four general forms that need to be completed for any clinic service which are the clinic registration and consent, minor consent and clinic registration, data privacy acknowledgement, and personal health history forms, which are all available in English, Somali, and Spanish. Only the clinic registration and consent form needs to be signed by a parent or guardian while the other three solely require a student signature. The data privacy acknowledgement and personal health history have to be updated yearly but both the consent and clinic registration forms only need to be submitted once. These forms and specialized forms for specific services like vaccine administration, sports physicals, and mental health services can either be found at the clinic or on the minneapolismn.gov website by searching “school based clinics” and going to the required forms subsection.
Don’t be a stranger to the School Based Clinic this school year. Incredible resources like this need to be used and appreciated so that they can keep going. Services that get more interest and use will get more funding which can only improve this already invaluable asset. For any needs you might have from mental health to immunizations to sexual health, the School Based Clinic is your one-stop shop, so bear that in mind next time you’re about to schedule a doctor’s appointment.
