Health Update

The number of school-based health clinics in the United States has shot up 50 percent in two years, a new national survey notes.

In a survey conducted last year of adolescent-health offices in 50 states, pollsters counted 913 school health centers. New York led the nation with 149; Florida came in second with 66 sites. In 1994, the number of school clinics hovered around 600.

The recent surge is partly due to the fact that states have become increasingly disposed to spend money on health programs at schools, said Julia Lear, the director of Making the Grade, a Washington-based nonprofit group that promotes school-based health centers and conducted the survey. According to Ms. Lear, during the past school year, 34 states allocated $42 million in state and federal money to such centers, an 8 percent increase over 1994. More than half of school-based health centers currently receive some state dollars, says the report, which...