(Radio Iowa) – A one year experiment in a Davenport junior high school will likely expand this fall to three more. The district’s head nurse, Gina Ekstrom, says Community Health Care, which serves low-income residents of the Quad Cities, received a grant to improve access to health care for children. So last year, it provided vaccinations at the school and virtual medical appointments so kids would miss only a few minutes of class, instead of a half-day or full-day of school.

“Parents really appreciated that having this partnership with Community Health allowed them to get the health care that their children needed, maybe without them having to take a day off from work,” Ekstrom says. “It was great because Community Health Care came to them. We met the students where they were.”

Community Health Care plans to add mental health services at the junior high school this fall to address a long-term problem made worse by COVID. Ekstrom says vaccinations and virtual medical appointments will be available this fall at three more junior highs, with mental health services added next year. Thanks to the grant, there’s no cost to the Davenport School District.