A trend of installing “health centers” in K–12 public schools has led to students being offered disturbing services without parental knowledge or consent, an investigation by a leading parental rights group has found.
Progressive education activists claim that so-called school-based health centers and other “wrap-around services” improve academic performance and behavior by giving students daily access to mental and health services on campus.
This sounds good in theory—especially with a proposed staff of nurses, doctors, and psychologists ready to aid students in need—but a lack of guardrails and associations with politically motivated organizations severely compromise the sales pitch for school-based health centers or SBHCs. . .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and affiliated groups claim that SBHCs, often established in “low-income communities,” improve academics and behavior.
However, studies done in 2020 and 2023 found that giving students an on-campus clinic and psychologist had “no statistically significant” effect on students’ academic performance. The 2023 study from Pediatric Research, the official publication of the American Pediatric Society and two related groups found that students using SBHCs were more likely to be diagnosed with mental disorders such as gender dysphoria.
via joemiller