Rocking Horse has a Sprinter van it used before replacing that with a larger health bus, and it plans to add a ramp and do roll-on and roll-off vision and dental equipment, SBHC Director Amanda Ambrosio said.
“[We are] essentially just being able to provide that same vision service that we have here but going to the school to remove the barrier of transportation,” Ambrosio said.
Health Partners of Western Ohio, another federally-qualified health center, has provided mobile vision and dental services to Springfield schools, Ambrosio said. Rocking Horse has agreed to provide these services across Clark County if Health Partners receives another grant, allowing it to serve the other five counties.
Since April, when the SBHC added vision services, it has seen more than 300 visits, with most being kids in the district, Ambrosio said.
“There are only a few optometry offices in town that take Medicaid and the ones that do, they typically only take a certain amount of appointments a day, so it can be kind of hard to get in,” Ambrosio said.
The health center only takes Medicaid and uninsured patients for vision services.
Opening up dental space
The clinic has space for three operatories, or work stations, for its dental services, and the ODH grant funds two, Ambrosio said. The Delta Dental Grant will fund the third and allow dental services to become fully functional.
Dental space is currently being used for the high school STNA program, SBHC Coordinator Anita Biles said. When the program finishes in May, students will be transitioned to a different room and the clinic will begin setup.
The ODH grant requires services to start within six months of the award, so mobile vision and dental services will start by April, Ambrosio said.
Many patients at the SBHC, particularly kids, have chronic mouth pain and Springfield has a shortage of dental services, Ambrosio said. Rocking Horse’s main clinic provides dental services but did not employ a pediatric dentist until recently.
“We do know the need is there for sure, and dental pain is heavily related to chronic absenteeism,” Ambrosio said.
Health care access helping attendance
Springfield schools have worked to combat chronic absenteeism recently, now seeing a 92% attendance rate for the current school year with a 1% increase goal.
Many students who need extractions or sedation have to go to Dayton Children’s Hospital, which could be an up to six-month wait, Biles said.
Students and the community need to know what health services are available and how to access them, Biles said.
“For example, just that relationship we had with truancy officers who are going out looking at students who are chronically absent and finding out the why, we identified that either it was they were ill, they had a child, maybe the child was ill and they didn’t realize that they had access [to the clinic],” Biles said.
Patients at the school clinic get put into Rocking Horse’s system and can access to services offered only at the main building, like chiropractic care, Ambrosio said.
More time in the classroom
The school health center has seen around 4,200 patients in 2025 so far, with 1,063 being this school year. Of those visits, 50% were students from the district, Ambrosio said. There have been around 5,300 patient visits in total since the clinic opened last year.
For every hour a student uses a school-based health center, three hours of classroom time are saved, Ambrosio said.
“If they’re not feeling well and they can just come down for an appointment, we can get them in and out and they can go right back up to class, versus a guardian having to come and pick them up, transport them wherever the time of the appointment and then get them back to school,” Ambrosio said. “And who knows what kind of stops might happen on the way back or if they come back at all.”
All Springfield students in the district’s 17 buildings from preschool to grade 12 can use the clinic with parental consent. As a federally-qualified health center, it accepts all patients regardless of their ability to pay.
To make an appointment at the health center or for more information, call 937-717-2578 or visit www.scsdoh.org/page/school-based-health-center.
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