"These kids don't walk in with colds and scrapes anymore," ... "They walk in with pneumonia and other communicable diseases.

Children without health insurance lose out on learning at school | By Tony Pugh | McClatchy Newspapers | Sunday, November 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — While Congress and President Bush squabble over health insurance for low-income children, school officials nationwide are scrambling each day to find affordable medical care so that sick and needy students can continue to learn.

Growing numbers of uninsured children have made it harder for educators to focus on classroom achievement without first addressing the medical needs of their students who lack health insurance or dental coverage.
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... The boy had become a behavioral problem and missed more than 50 days of school when he could no longer get the drug after his mother's insurance expired. ...

In New Prairie, Wis., school social workers got the local Lions Club to provide corrective eyewear for a nearsighted fifth-grader whose parents had no insurance. ...

And in West Palm Beach, Fla., high school principal Nathan Collins persuaded the local school board to help fund a full-time, school-based health clinic because so many of his uninsured students were missing school because they couldn't get medical care.
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Wells, who's now a school health supervisor for the Department of Health in Manchester, N.H., said she'd like Bush and lawmakers who oppose the bill to visit a school health clinic themselves.

"These kids don't walk in with colds and scrapes anymore," Wells said. "They walk in with pneumonia and other communicable diseases. It's hard to realize how difficult it is for them not to have the appropriate care. You have to see sick kids to understand what it's like." ...