Mobile health clinics come to more local LAUSD schools

The Los Angeles Board of Education added 26 schools in Wilmington, San Pedro, Carson and Gardena to an existing program that provides health care to uninsured children in those areas.

Here's a passage from Melissa Evans' story showing the need at a San Pedro elementary school:

The Healthy Start clinic at Barton Hill Elementary School in San Pedro, where 98 percent of students fall below the federal poverty line, helps keep kids in the classroom, Principal Lou Mardesich said.

Students who are referred by the school nurse, along with their siblings or parents who don't have insurance, can use the clinic every Tuesday from 8 a.m. to noon. No one is turned away, health officials say.

"It's a great service," Mardesich said. "Students can't even enroll without their vaccinations."