A fourth high school CHAS-run clinic opens in Spokane Public Schools

CHAS Health’s domain across Spokane Public Schools is growing.

Students at Ferris High School can now get sports physicals, same-day prescriptions, mental health treatment, pain medication and even have their warts removed at a newly opened CHAS Heath clinic within the school itself.

The clinic, opened in October, is now the district’s fourth school-based health clinic with CHAS Heath. The first opened at Rogers High School in 2020. Successes with that clinic prompted the district to open centers at high schools North Central and Shadle Park.

Just like the existing clinics at the three other high schools, students and eventually their siblings can visit for pretty much any reason they would go to the doctor’s office, except they do not have to leave school to do so.

“You can come see a doctor the same day you have an issue, whether you’re feeling sick or need to get a sports physical so you can play volleyball,” said pediatrician Yvette Rosser, who works for CHAS Heath at the Ferris clinic. “It just makes it really easy and hopefully minimizes disruptions, particularly for school learning.”

The clinic is open weekdays from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for Ferris students, with an outside entrance for nonschool hours. The clinic was retrofitted into the old staff lounge, which moved into a former classroom. It is hard to guess that the space was not originally designed for medical care, with a waiting room, an exam room and a behavioral health space. Always open for business is a “Chazzy’s Closet” chock-full of essential hygiene supplies, winter accessories for the cold and other essentials students can grab.

For medical care, CHAS Health accepts Medicaid and all insurance. Kids who are not insured can be registered right at the clinic for the state’s health care plan with the help of a community health worker.

“Most students have no out-of-pocket costs when they access us,” said Daniel Trautvetter, School Based Health Program Manager at CHAS Health.

Since its opening in October, the Ferris clinic has served 87 patients in 132 separate visits. Largely, Rosser said these visits have been for physicals required before a student can play a school sport, to speak with a counselor for behavior health issues or medication management.

Rosser said the clinic is “getting busier every day.” Ferris Principal John O’Dell said it is just a matter of informing the kids that the clinic is there, then he expects more traffic. The school already is benefiting from CHAS Heath’s presence, O’Dell said. Unlike in the past, Ferris started the calendar year with every student up to date on their school-required immunizations or exemptions in place, so everyone can start on time.

“Kids are finding ways to support themselves and to get that access,” O’Dell said.

The longer clinics are in schools, the more frequently they seem to be patronized. At Rogers, the longest open clinic, 3,270 patients visited the clinic in 13,191 separate visits in 2025. Newer clinics at Shadle Park and North Central, opened 2024, have had 974 patients in 2,489 visits and 937 patients in 3,397 visits in 2025, respectively.

The health center is paid for in part with $200,000 of city of Spokane’s one-time federal COVID relief dollars; the school district matched that money to retrofit the center into Ferris, according to previous Spokesman-Review reporting. CHAS Health pays for their employees and leases the space from the school.

Much of the impetus to bring clinics into schools is to address attendance. Rather than taking a day off school to visit the doctor, often involving a parent leaving work for the appointment, kids can access medical care a couple doors away from their classroom.

Primary care visits at the clinic take 20 minutes, Trautvetter said, less than a high school class period.

“That would be a half-day you missed from school, easily,” said City Councilman Zack Zappone, also a teacher at North Central High School.

As principal, O’Dell is pleased for the setting to address the needs of the “whole child,” beyond academics.

“We recognize that our kids, if they’re hungry, if they have health issues, if they’re tired, they can’t learn as well,” O’Dell said. “This is one way we can really support our students and our families to make sure their needs are taken care of.”