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Anchor Lead: Getting students to do well in high school doesn't just involve books and teachers. Sometimes it takes a little medicine and someone to who will listen to your problems. These things and more can be found inside Teen Health Centers. Every Seattle Public High School has one. In the latest edition of the Learning Curve, KPLU's Jennifer Wing introduces us to the work that goes on at the teen health center at Franklin High School.

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Walking down a hallway in Franklin High School it's easy miss the Teen Health Center. The entry practically blends into the wall. Inside there's a small front office with no windows. But there are a lot of patients and many are here to see Beth Light, a registered nurse.

Beth Light: It's a Monday, and I've seen 18 students already. I saw someone with ingrown toenails that needed antibiotics. I saw probably half a dozen people about birth control. We had a positive STD. We were able to bring her in for treatment. A sexual assault. So it's been very busy and it's just after lunch.

Light has been working at Franklin's Teen Health Center for nearly six years. She quickly moves from patient to patient, giving them her undivided attention in confidence behind the closed door of her office.

Beth Light: I had a young man who wanted to gain weight. I was asking who cooked for him. He said no one. His mother was in the ICU dying. She was 38 and he was on his own. So I was able to contact the counselors and we were able to get him some support and some food. We had a young woman who was sexually assaulted and she actually got on a bus, a public bus to tell us. We were the people she came to.

Many of the patients are regulars who drop into the center a few times a week even if they don't have a serious problem. Faith, who's 18 and graduating this year, has been coming to talk to Beth Light for years.

Faith: Beth's like a best friend-more like a mom. She always helps me a lot. It's not just about what I need like birth control pills or anything like that. I talk about my family problems and I talk about my relationship with my friends and my boyfriend. She gives me advice about what to do. Stuff like that. It's a lot of help.

Light and the rest of the staff at the center are all employees of Group Health, which operates five other health clinics in Seattle Public Schools. The majority of their funding comes from the Seattle Family and Education levy, which voters renewed last year. Doctor Jeff Lindenbaum oversees the operation of all of the clinics.

Jeff Lindenbaum: Teens have lots of needs, they have lots of risky behaviors and yet they have no one to advocate for them. There's no march for teens like for breast cancer. They aren't warm and fuzzy poster children. You sort of have to go where they are and have them accept you. And the school based health centers is a really great place to do that.

Going to where the patients are appears to be having an effect on teen pregnancy rates. King County Public Health credits teen health centers, like the one at Franklin, with the drop in the number of young mothers in Seattle to the lowest rate in nearly 20 years. Beth Light is seeing it first hand.

Beth Light: We used to see young women walk in and maybe they were 26-28 weeks pregnant. I mean that would happen quite a bit. And now that never happens. Never, never, never.

However, Doctor Lindenbaum says the health centers are also noticing an increase in sexual assaults.

Jeff Lindenbaum: I think it is a growing problem, I think we're seeing more. Partly because as it gets played out it seems more acceptable. Women have realized no this is not necessarily my fault this has happened, and as they have places like the health center they can go to, and have that level of trust, victims are more willing to come forward and talk about it. So it's a combination of it happening more and people are more willing to talk about it.

Building trust is critical in getting students the help they need. It's a delicate relationship. But once it's established, Beth Light and her colleagues can get to the root of a problem. Such a relationship was nurtured with James. He's a senior at Franklin who turned to the teen health center when he was a sophomore and coming to grips with his sexuality.

James: Me, I'm gay, so Beth helped me be more comfortable with myself and to be out and open to my friends. And also because I'm sexually active, being more aware about diseases and practicing safe sex.

He credits the support he's received over the years with improving his performance in school.

James: I use to get N's and bad grades. A no grade. It's even worse than getting a D or a C. But now I'm getting A's and B's. I have my head on right. I have goals. I have to owe some of it to the teen health center because they've been here for me.

Health officials in Seattle are looking to draw a clear line between academic performance and teen health centers. What they do know right now is most of the students who walk into these centers don't have health insurance. While this is a dilemma for anyone, it's a particular concern for adolescents since most of the serious and costly health problems teens encounter are preventable.

Jennifer Wing, KPLU News, Seattle