Deconstructing the Wall: School-Based Health Centers, Boundedness, and the Geography of Care

Abstract

Scholarship on school-based health centers (SBHCs) demonstrates the model’s capacity to expand access and improve student outcomes. Yet, limited research addresses the potential of school-based care to impact community health. This thesis addresses this gap by proposing a relational and spatial reconception of the school as an anchor institution. Rather than treating school-based health centers only as access interventions, I situate them within a conceptual frame termed a “geography of care.” This framework synthesizes scholarship on spatial access, health geography, and community development to more deeply assess how school-based care is organized, governed, and connected to families and communities. Following a review of relevant literature, I present three representative cases that challenge boundedness in its many forms, reflecting the ideological and practical possibilities that emerge when care is considered spatially. This paper ultimately argues that schools are uniquely positioned care sites – multiscalar and relational in nature – that can be leveraged in support of community health.