Expanding the Effects of "The Great Equalizer": Schools as Health Centers in Low-Access Rural Communities

Abstract

Poor children in rural communities face numerous barriers to health care access. School-based health centers (SBHCs) are a potential solution to health care access disparities and may have larger effects on health outcomes in rural schools than in urban schools. In this paper, I present an ethical argument for why SBHCs should be implemented in underserved rural school districts. I additionally evaluate SBHC program types based on the existing outcomes literature and analyze how SBHCs could be modified to best serve rural communities.