PASCO, Wash. -- The Department of Health and Human Services is giving a $500,000 grant to put two new clinics at two schools in Pasco.
It's is all part of the Affordable Healthcare Act, which requires everyone to have health insurance by the year 2014.
The Department of Health and Human Services is giving more than $80 million in awards to 197 school-based health center programs across the country. The money is estimated to provide school based health centers to 384 thousand students
A million is going to Washington state, and $500,000 to the Tri-Cities Community Health Clinic who will ' open two clinics in the Pasco School District, one at Chiawana High School and another at Ellen Ochoa Middle School.
"The majority of the Pasco School District children are on free or reduced lunch, meaning that they're Medicaid eligible. So this will certainly make a huge impact for us and for the community," said Esleen Fultz, the Chief Financial Officer a the Tri-Cities Community Health Clinic.
Fultz said they plan on meeting with the school board to set up plans for building the clinics on school property and staffing them in the next six to seven months.
