By next fall Clark Middle School students could get their school physicals and shots, get treatment for infections or a sprain, and maybe see a behavioral health specialist, all at a clinic right within their Eastside school.

The School Board Monday night approved Anchorage's first school-based health clinic.

The clinic will start small, offering only periodic sports physicals when it opens in January, with a plan to expand services in August. It's a no-cost deal for students, and little cost for the district. It's meant to be staffed by volunteer medical professionals such as advanced nurse practitioners, though firm commitments have yet to be worked out.

The idea is to make it much easier for students to get minor health problems attended to, without needing a parent to come take them out for a day. "If you can catch strep throat early, you miss one day of school instead of five," said school district nursing and health services director Nancy Edtl.

Improving attendance should improve school performance. But beyond that, the goal is simply to make the students healthier.

School-based health clinics have been around the U.S. since the 1970s, but not much in Alaska. A clinic opened in the Juneau-Douglas High School in the 1992-1993 school year and is still thriving today. It is funded through a six-member coalition of state and city agencies, an Indian health service organization, and a nonprofit, and offers everything from reproductive services to mental health counseling at no charge. This year, the coalition expanded services to a new Juneau high school, Thunder Mountain. The co-ordinator of both clinics, Mary Tonsmeire, is a city employee. The school district's main contributions are space and janitorial service, she said.

Anchorage Superintendent Carol Comeau said the Clark clinic, a pilot project, will also be a collaboration of community groups. Who, exactly, isn't clear. But Comeau came to the School Board with a dozen or so letters of support from places like Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center, Southcentral Foundation and North Star Behavioral Health System, and one important commitment that encouraged the board to go ahead with it: Providence Alaska Medical Center said it would contribute $25,000 a year for three years to help out.

The next step is for the district to work out formal agreements with some providers.

Anchorage Neighborhood Health Center supports the clinic, but would not itself send any doctors or nurse practitioners to staff it, said Joan Fisher, executive director. "Everybody wants a provider in their school and it's just not efficient. They'd end up seeing maybe five people in a day or maybe six, whereas in the clinic they could see 15 or 16."

If the Clark clinic offers mental health services, North Star would be willing to send a counselor over, said Andrew Mayo, the group's CEO. "What they're trying to do is a very good thing."

Clark, in Mountain View, got the first Anchorage clinic because families requested it when the district solicited advice about what should go into the rebuilt school. The old Clark was razed, and a new building opened this fall.

It's an appropriate neighborhood, drawing from some of the poorer sections of East Anchorage, where many families don't have cars, and where taking time off work to bring a child in for a shot or a check-up can be a big, expensive hassle.

Clark's clinic services will be in addition to the school nurse, who will eventually act as gatekeeper and will send some students to the clinic, district officials said.

Clark's clinic will expand only as much as the families want it to, Comeau said. The medical records will be kept by health care providers, not the district, said Comeau. And, she emphasized, parents will have to give permission before their students can be treated.