ATLANTA – For parents in rural LaFayette, a call from the school nurse typically means valuable time away from a factory line and a 30-minute drive to figure out what ails their kid.

That’s partly why the idea of a school-based health center so appealed to Walker County Superintendent Damon Raines.

“If a child misses, they’ll miss the entire day because it becomes an event for that family,” he said. “They all go to town, and they’ll all go to the doctor.”

Raines says a center that opened in a modular unit at Gilbert Elementary School last month gives students, staff and others access to preventive care, dental care and other services not readily available in the area.

He believes it will do something else – keep students in class.

A growing number of school-based clinics in Georgia aim to cut back on absences while, in some cases, meeting health needs in underserved communities.

An Emory University program, PARTNERS for Equity in Child and Adolescent Health, has helped six such centers open, including one in Catoosa County.

Five more are opening this school year, said Dr. Veda Johnson, PARTNERS director.

Johnson said the centers are effective because they “eliminate essentially every barrier to healthcare that you can think of” – such as transportation, limited hours of operation or a parent’s uncertainty over when a child should see a doctor.

“If the children aren’t healthy and if they’re not present, they can’t learn,” she said.

Statewide about 320,000 students miss 10 days of school each year due to illness. Children with a mental illness can miss even more class time – as many as 22 days annually.

If the experiences of more established centers are any indication, the new center in Walker County will help keep kids in class.

Last school, year 252 students who went to a health center at Lake Forest Elementary near Atlanta – 58 percent of all students who visited the center – returned to class.

Those are students who would have normally been sent home and referred to a healthcare provider, Lynne Meadows, who coordinates the program for Fulton County Schools, told a group of legislators this week.

Advocates also look to the clinics as a way to boost academic performance.

“You’re not going to get outcomes in school if your population is not nurtured,” said Polly McKinney, advocacy director for Voices for Georgia’s Children.

“If someone’s mouth is hurting, if somebody has asthma, if somebody is not immunized, those things all work against a child’s success,” she said.

The facilities are operated by outside groups and rely on mid-level medical professionals, like a physician’s assistant, who work under the supervision of a doctor.

They can provide a range of services such as wellness checks, mental health counseling and treatment for asthma or other chronic illnesses.

McKinney and others have gained the ear of House lawmakers, who are studying what the state can do to bring more centers to Georgia. It’s unlikely those deliberations will lead to funding anytime soon.

Rep. Bruce Broadrick, R-Dalton, who is leading a committee that is looking into the issue, said he believes the centers both improve student performance and divert people with routine needs away from the emergency room.

But he said in an interview that the drive to create these centers shouldn’t come from the state.

“It’s got to bubble up from the community, and the resources have to got to come locally,” said Broadrick, who is a pharmacist.

His committee will likely create a “blueprint” that he hopes legislators will take back home. Those lawmakers, he hopes, will serve as “catalysts” for the centers in their communities.

But proponents say state funding may be necessary, especially in parts of Georgia that have the greatest need.

For the centers it supports, the Emory program awards planning grants and assists with startup funds, which are possible through private donations.

When it can’t provide funding, the university helps communities look for other sources. Johnson said the program has worked with 32 counties whose schools want to explore the option.

The first year, a center’s costs can run as high as $250,000. That usually drops the next year.

Eventually, the centers can become self-sustaining, said Johnson. One provider told lawmakers that can sometimes take three years.

Raines, the superintendent, said it will likely take a combination of state aid and community support to enable more schools to open their own health centers.

In Walker County, the district’s only contribution to the project was in-kind. It provided the property and pays utility costs. The service provider, a nonprofit called Primary Healthcare Centers, has done the rest.

A start-up grant from the state, or something similar, would encourage homegrown momentum in areas where other resources aren’t plentiful, he said.

Nationally, nearly half of the 44 states with centers financially assist the school-based health centers.

For now, McKinney said the legislative committee’s work has helped raise the profile of centers.

That’s no small thing, she said.

“As people become more and more aware, the state will find its own way to be of assistance,” she said.

Jill Nolin covers the Georgia Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach her at jnolin@cnhi.com.