Health Services for Pupils Attending Nonpublic Schools
Education Law 912 requires each of the school districts in New York State, except New York City, to provide resident pupils who attend nonpublic schools with all of the same health and welfare services available to pupils who attend the public schools of the district. The administrators of nonpublic schools must request these services which include, but are not limited to, all of the services performed by a physician, dentist, dental hygienist, nurse, school psychologist, school social worker and speech correctionist. The services also may include dental prophylaxis; vision, hearing and scoliosis screening tests; recording health histories; physical examinations and in-school immunization; maintaining cumulative health records; and administering emergency care programs for ill or injured pupils. These services must be provided by the school district in which the nonpublic school is located.
In New York City health services are to be provided by the following agency and, again, pupils who attend nonpublic schools are entitled to the same health and welfare services as pupils who attend public schools:
- New York City - Bureau of School Children and Adolescent Health, New York City Department of Health
In cases where pupils attending a nonpublic school actually live in another public school district, the two public school districts must enter into a written contract governing the services to be provided and the reimbursement for such services.
Sections 901-914 of Education Law and Commissioner’s Regulation 136.2(d)(2) specify the minimal school health services, which a board of education must provide for its pupils. (New York City is excepted from these requirements.) These include:
- physical examinations upon entrance to school, upon entrance to grades 1, 3, 7 and 10 and at any other time deemed necessary by school authorities in the educational interests of the pupil;
- an annual vision screening test for all pupils in grades K-12;
- an annual hearing test for all pupils in grades K-7, at grade 10 and at any other time deemed necessary by school authorities in the educational interests of the pupil;
- an annual scoliosis (spinal) screening test for all pupils 8-16 years of age;
- the maintenance of cumulative health records;
- written notification to parents of any health problems found;
- emergency care of ill or injured pupils; and
- compliance with and enforcement of mandatory immunization requirements.
Section 905 of the Education Law was recently amended to require all schools in New York State to provide vision-screening services to all new admissions within six months of enrollment. The components of distance screening are distance acuity, color perception, and near vision. If a nonpublic school receives its health services from a public school district or from a city or county department of health, as is the case in New York City, this service must be included. However, if a nonpublic school does not request health services, the nonpublic school is obligated to perform vision screening on new admissions.
When health and welfare services are requested by a nonpublic school, the board of education or city department of health is obligated to provide services equivalent to those provided to public school pupils in the district in which the nonpublic school is located. In the Questions and Answers below, references to provision of health services by the public school district include the provision of those services by the appropriate city or county department of health.
Questions and Answers
- Who is required to provide health and welfare services?
The school district within whose geographic boundaries the nonpublic school is located must provide such services. In New York City, the agency serving the public schools must provide these services.
- Is the provision of such services a matter of course?
No. The principal, administrator, teacher, or other person in charge of the nonpublic school must request these services.
- Is there a particular form, manner, or time for requesting
such services?
The law is silent on this point. However, school districts usually plan budgets and staff assignments in the spring for the following school year. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that the nonpublic school principal send a letter of request to the public school superintendent in sufficient time to permit inclusion of such services in the budgetary and work plans. The nonpublic school administrator should confer with the superintendent of the public school district to determine the best time to file such a request.
- How often must the nonpublic school request such services?
The law does not specify any frequency. However, in general practice the request for such services is a one-time occurrence. It is recommended that such requests be reviewed annually. In so doing, all parties will have an opportunity to discuss the services provided; revise the requests, budgets, and work plans; and renegotiate contracts, if necessary.
- Must all the health services provided to public school
pupils by the city department of health in New
York City also be made available
to pupils in nonpublic schools?
Services provided to public school pupils must be made available to nonpublic school pupils on an equitable basis.
- Which health and welfare services must be provided?
All health and welfare services which are provided to pupils in public schools must be available to pupils in nonpublic schools, i.e., vision, hearing and scoliosis screening tests, physical examinations, dental screening, in-school immunization, and emergency care for ill or injured pupils.
- Are there any limitations on the number or kind of
services provided and the location at which they may
be given?
Yes. The following specifications must be observed for sectarian nonpublic schools:
- The following services may properly be rendered by school districts to students attending nonpublic schools on nonpublic school premises: the services of a physician, dentist, dental hygienist or nurse; dental prophylaxis; vision and hearing tests; the taking of medical histories; the administration of health screening tests; the maintenance of cumulative health records and the administration of emergency care to ill or injured pupils.
- The services of a school psychologist and a school speech correctionist may be rendered on nonpublic school premises only to the extent that such services are diagnostic in nature. To the extent that the services of a school psychologist or school speech correctionist are therapeutic or remedial in nature, they may be rendered to a student attending a nonpublic school only on a religiously neutral site.
In summary, the school district may not provide direct instructional services to sectarian nonpublic schools, e.g., health teaching. Also, it may not provide any services not currently available to public school pupils.
- Which services are specifically identified as therapeutic or remedial in nature?
Services of an instructional nature are considered therapeutic or remedial; services to assess or evaluate pupils are not considered therapeutic or remedial.
- What is a "religiously neutral site"?
Such a site may be, but is not limited to, a public school, a mobile unit, or some other public location.
- Is the public school district responsible for providing
transportation to a "religiously neutral site"?
Such transportation must be provided if the distance to the site exceeds 1/4 mile.
- Must a nonpublic school request all of the health and
welfare services provided to public school pupils?
No. The nonpublic school may request only those services it needs or wants for its pupils.
- Who pays for the services to nonresident pupils?
Section 912 of the Education Law requires the school district in which the pupil resides to pay for health services provided to pupils residing in one district but attending a nonpublic school in another district.
- How is this arranged?
The school district in which the nonpublic school pupil lives and the school district providing the services enter into a written contract. The district providing the services determines the appropriate charge.
- Are pupils enrolled in nonpublic schools who are not
residents of New York State entitled to these services?
No. No district is required to provide health and welfare services to pupils who are not residents of New York State.
- If a nonpublic school has both day and boarding pupils,
must the health and welfare services be provided to both
groups?
School health services must be provided to both groups of the pupils are New York State residents. However, the school district is not required to provide 24-hour service to the boarding pupils. Again, no district is required to provide health and welfare services to pupils who are not residents of New York State.
- If a nonpublic school does not request health services,
must health services be provided?
No.
- When health services are requested must the school
district or city or county department of health also
provide equipment and supplies?
The law is silent on this point. In practice, the nonpublic school provides all of the permanent, nonconsumable facilities and equipment, e.g., room, furniture, files, scale, telephone and utilities; and the school district provides the consumable supplies, e.g., bandaids, tongue blades, thermometers, pupil health records and related forms. Equipment such as audiometers and mechanical vision testers are usually provided by the school district for the duration of the testing period.
- Must the school district provide exactly the same kind
of staff and hours of coverage to the nonpublic school
pupils as are provided to the public school pupils?
No. The law specifies that the services performed and provided by the staff must be the same. The nature of staff coverage may vary and should be based on factors related to pupil need, pupil enrollment and time needed to provide the requested services.
- Must a school district provide school nursing services
in a nonpublic school?
If the district provides nursing services in public schools, these services are to be made available to a nonpublic school on a basis proportional to the number and needs of pupils in the school. This may mean that a school nurse could spend a few hours a week in a small school or be assigned fulltime to a large school.
- How is the equivalency of health and welfare services
determined?
Equivalence of services is based upon the nature, scope and quality of the health and welfare services provided for the pupils in the school district in which the nonpublic school is located. The determination of equivalency of health and welfare services is made by the superintendent of the district which provides the services. Also, a school district may not provide any services not currently available to public school pupils.
- Are the services if a speech correctionist and school
psychologist considered to be within the classification
of health and welfare services?
Yes.
- May all the health and welfare services be delivered
in nonsectarian nonpublic schools?
Yes.
- May these services be delivered in sectarian schools?
That depends on the nature of the services requested. Diagnostic and evaluative services may be delivered in sectarian schools, but services which are therapeutic or remedial in nature may be rendered to pupils who attend sectarian nonpublic schools only if they are delivered at a religiously neutral site.
- Are there any health services that the nonpublic school
must provide if it does not request health services from
the public school district?
Yes. In addition to immunization mandates contained in Public Health Law, Subdivision 4 of Section 905 requires all public and nonpublic schools in New York State to provide vision screening services to all new admissions within six months of enrollment.
- What are the components of vision screening?
The required components include distance acuity, near vision and color perception.
- May a nonpublic school ask the public school district
to provide only vision screening services and no other
health services?
Yes. A nonpublic school may request only those portions of health services that it needs or wants for its pupils. Therefore, vision screening of new admissions may be the only request of a nonpublic school.
- If the nonpublic school is already receiving health
and welfare services from a public school district, will
the new vision screening requirement be incorporated
into the services provided?
Yes. The public school district is responsible for performing the vision screening for new admissions within six months of enrollment.
 - If a public school district provides in-school immunization
as a health service for public school pupils, must this
service also be provided for nonpublic school pupils?
Yes. If the nonpublic school requests this health service, in-school immunization must be provided.
- Who is responsible for maintenance, storage and disposition
of the cumulative health records provided by the public
school district?
Day-to-day maintenance of pupil health records is the responsibility of the health services staff provided by the school district. Storage and disposition of the records are the responsibility of the nonpublic school.
- How long must a nonpublic school retain these records?
While the law does not address this directly, it is recommended that nonpublic schools follow the record retention and disposition schedule prescribed for public schools. The retention listed for two major records is:
Cumulative student health record Until student is 27 years old
Immunization 10 years
Information about retention of other records is available from the Office for Nonpublic Schools. (See Section IX)