Walk-in youth health clinic opens inside East Lansing High School
Tour the new youth health clinic located at East Lansing High School
University of Michigan -Sparrow partnered with East Lansing Public Schools to open a youth health clinic on Oct. 30, 2025.
- A new youth health clinic has opened at East Lansing High School through a partnership with UM Health-Sparrow.
- Services are available to all youth, not just students of the East Lansing school district.
- Care will be provided regardless of a patient’s insurance status or ability to pay.
EAST LANSING — A new youth clinic aimed at increasing health care access for young people has officially opened at East Lansing High School.
On Thursday, Oct. 30 UM Health-Sparrow welcomed people for a tour of the facilities.
This clinic is UM Health-Sparrow’s second opened in partnership with a local school district. In 2024, the hospital group collaborated with Grand Ledge Public Schools to bring an in-school clinic to the community there.
The new clinic will offer everyday care, including physicals, immunizations, treatable diseases and mental health care. The walk-in clinic is open to people from ages 5-21, and up to age 26 for students enrolled in special education programs. Patients do not need to be students within the East Lansing Public Schools to be treated.
Greg Holzhei, market medical director for primary care for UM Health-Sparrow, said the new clinic is a great opportunity to bring access straight to where students are.
The program is funded through a grant dollars from the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Holzhei said. The clinic will treat patients with and without insurance, and will provide care despite the ability to pay. Insurance will be billed through Sparrow, but people who cannot pay will not be penalized.
“We want patients to get care when needed, regardless of their ability to pay,” he said. “University of Michigan Health has provided these services regardless, so we’re not going to go after parents to pay if they cannot afford it. We just want patients to get the care that they need.”
Financial assistance specialists will be available onsite to help any families that need help enrolling in Medicaid or finding other health care options as well.
East Lansing Superintendent Dori Leyko said the district has been working to bring a healthcare clinic to the school for nearly three years. The district’s previous partner had to pull out after having funding issues, and leaders thought the project was dead in the water before UM Health-Sparrow stepped in.
The new clinic will have a full-time social worker, providing another layer of mental health support.
Leyko said having in-building mental health care will be helpful too, because there is such a high demand for mental health care that families do not always have access to.
The walk-in clinic is meant to provide access for kids, saving parents from needing to take time off work to bring their students to the doctor and schedule around appointment availability.
“The access is going to give kids time back in class, time that they won’t be missing from school, families time that they may not need to take off of work to be able to get into an appointment,” Leyko said.
She said the clinic’s location is a key part of the accessibility as well, with the high school centrally-located where many walkers could get to the site.
As the clinic opens, she said she sees different opportunities for collaboration and access to help the community, including partnering with the Grand Ledge clinic to have full days dedicated to completing sports physicals, for example, before the fall seasons begin.
— Contact Karly Graham at [email protected]. Follow her on X at @KarlyGrahamJrn.
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