Bridging Health Gaps for LAUSD Students

Health care access

LAUSD (select only if you have a district-wide partnership)

Pilot or new project, program, or initiative (testing or implementing a new idea)

.“Our aim is not only to relieve the symptom of poverty, but to cure it and, above all, to prevent it.”
— President Lyndon B. Johnson, State of the Union Address, 1964
This unfinished goal drives Kurka’s mission: to ensure LAUSD students aren't excluded from care due to poverty, immigration status, or system failure. Many families avoid Medi-Cal due to fear or red tape. When LAUSD capacity is exceeded, Kurka responds—immediately.
At the beginning of 2025, Kurka began developing a collaborative health access strategy and approached LAUSD Medical Services to propose a model rooted in school-based health fairs. These one-day events would provide physical, dental, vision, and preventive screenings in one place, on one day.
As CMS states: “The best way to improve health outcomes is through integrated, whole-person care.” Kurka’s model centers student wellbeing and brings care to a trusted setting—school.

Kurka proposes launching a pilot community health fair in close collaboration with LAUSD. The fair will offer comprehensive, school-based medical services to LAUSD students and their families—especially those affected by poverty, wildfires, and immigration-related barriers.
The health fair will offer families a rare opportunity to access care for the whole child—physical, dental, vision, and preventive—in one setting, on one day. This model eliminates the burdens of multiple appointments, long wait times, and system avoidance due to immigration fears or past exclusion.
Services will include physical exams, dental screenings and fluoride treatments, vaccinations, Medi-Cal enrollment assistance, and optometry services with on-site prescriptions. Kurka will fund the portable optometry equipment, hygiene supplies, and dental kits. Kurka will also distribute medical information sheets on topics such as healthy eating and preventive care. goal is to serve at least 2,500 students and caregivers at the pilot site.
As the program develops in collaboration with LAUSD, components may evolve in response to staff feedback, community needs, or district priorities. The fair will serve as both a direct intervention and a test model for a scalable, district-wide strategy to expand health access through schools. Given that LAUSD serves more than 400,000 students, this model has the potential to be implemented in multiple regions across the district and throughout Los Angeles County.

Kurka’s proposed health fair model will demonstrate how a district can directly reach underserved students and families with medical care, education, and access to benefits. If successful, this model will be scaled across all LAUSD campus'. Students will receive timely care that prevents chronic health issues from interfering with school success. Families who have traditionally avoided or been excluded from services will gain new access through trusted school-based outreach.
By meeting families where they are—on school campuses—this health fair model removes the barriers that keep the most vulnerable students from receiving care, especially undocumented, migrant, and service-sector families. It also builds long-term capacity for LAUSD to respond to future crises. Long-term, this model can be scaled helping close persistent health equity gaps across the entire County. LAUSD is the nation’s second-largest district, scalable models here can influence urban education systems nationwide.