Health clinics inside Waiʻanae Coast schools have run for a decade, and they are making it easier for working families to get their kids treated without missing a day of school or work.

• The program started when teachers, school staff, and students asked why so many kids were missing school, and the answer came back to health care.
• Clinics now operate at six schools on the Leeward Coast, including Waiʻanae High, Nānākuli High and Intermediate, and local charter schools.
• Students can get flu, strep, and COVID tests, checkups, and sports physicals on campus, plus mental health support from social workers and psychologists on site.
• Parents save a full day off work: one sick child used to mean pulling all the siblings out of school and driving through heavy traffic to a clinic.
• Visits are billed to insurance, and families without coverage get help signing up or pay on a sliding scale based on income. No child is turned away.

Outlook: The center wants to expand into every school on the coast and eventually across the island.