Designed to increase the reader's understanding of school-based clinics, this document begins by examining factors such as cost, age, scheduling, transportation, the need for confidentiality, and legal consent issues that hinder the adolescent's access to adequate health care. After reviewing early models of health care in schools, this document defines school-based clinics, outlines their recent growth, and lists their common characteristics. A profile of school-based clinics drawn from a 1987 mail and telephone survey, in which 35 of the 47 programs sampled responded, provides information on school-based clinic participants, staff, and services as well as the relationship between school-based clinics and the school, community, and school nurse. Last, school-based clinics are discussed in terms of components necessary for success, goals, funding, rationale for providing reproductive health care, involving parents and other adults, building links to other community-based providers, and current research to evaluate school-based clinics. Included are 3 tables, a list of operational sites by state, and a list of 16 printed resources. (CLA)