BREA : School Board Revises Medical-Data Policy

Brea-Olinda Unified School District trustees have updated a policy that will keep many new students out of school for up to five days if they do not provide proof of having had medical checkups.

Under the revised policy, students will be required to provide health certificates proving that they have had medical examinations within the past 18 months before entering the first grade or transferring to a district school from a school outside California.

Those exempt from presenting a health certificate or participating in the school-administered examinations include any student whose parents file a statement saying they are opposed to medical exams. Only a few parents each year refuse to have their children checked by doctors citing religious or other reasons, district officials said.

In addition to exams for these students, any junior high or high school cheerleader or athlete is required to have a complete physical examination before participating in interscholastic competition or practice.

Currently, students must submit to periodic vision, hearing and scoliosis examinations. Students receive vision screening in kindergarten and every three years thereafter until they reach high school.

Driver’s training students and all special education students have both their vision and hearing screened while all male first-graders are tested for colorblindness and female seventh-graders and male eighth-graders are checked for scoliosis.