Parents now have to opt in for school based clinical services
Parents who have not yet done so are asked to login to their Parent Portal and fill out the forms needed for clinical services this school year.
School District of Lee County Superintendent Dr. Christopher Bernier said during a recent meeting that due to legislation passed this year, instead of opting out, parents now have to opt in to all clinical services.
“We have been very impressed with how student services has handled it and principals on the ground to ensure necessary medical assistance to our students,” he said.
Health Services Assistant Director Wally Colon said the new legislation that went into effect on July 1, House Bill 1557, has language that directly impacts health services.
“School districts must ensure parents are informed of each health service that is provided and a signature of acknowledgement, or exemption of said service on file,” she said.
To be in compliance, Colon said they have used the FOCUS portal, which houses the student health and emergency contact forms. The district piggybacked on those forms to include the consent forms that have been broken down to explain every health care service provided in the schools clinics.
The forms are broken down into five different documents, one of which is the school clinic and health service consent form, which is itself broken down and includes first aid services and medication administration. The medication administration does include additional consent from the health care provider and parent consent, Colon said.
There are also health screenings, state mandated in Florida for kindergarten, first, second and third grade students. Those include vision, hearing, height, weight, scoliosis screening.
“If the student fails the vision screening that is when the third comes into play. They are eligible to participate on the vision bus. This is also a service provided through the State of Florida for free of charge to the students,” Colon said. “If they are deemed eligible and necessary of glasses they will be prescribed for free for these families.”
Another form that parents have to sign is the Medicaid Certified School Match Program, which provides reimbursement for medically necessary services through Medicaid eligible students.
Student Services Executive Director Jessica Duncan said all of the districts in Florida are eligible to participate in the Medicaid Certified School Match Program.
“We are able to receive reimbursement for Medicaid for various services. Some of those services would be occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, physical therapy and nursing services. Prior to 2020 we were only able to get reimbursement for those if a student had an IEP (individual education plan),” she said.
The law has since been expanded to include other nursing services.
“If a student has a disability, might be on their 504, we can now get reimbursed for that,” Duncan said.
The program does not impact the student’s Medicaid.
“If they are using it in school it has no impact on their ability to use Medicaid and those services outside of school. It does require a one-time notification,” Duncan said. “If someone marks that and they are not eligible for that, that’s OK, we just don’t put them in for reimbursement. If someone is Medicaid eligible and they don’t meet all of the criteria, again that is not an issue. We just wouldn’t put them through.”
Among the criteria is the student has to be Medicaid eligible on the date of service, be under 21, have to either have an IEP, 504, or some designation of a disability in the school district and they have to have Medicaid reimbursable services that are eligible.
Colon said another consent form is for such emergency services as CRP and AED if a student is in cardiac arrest.
“In the event of an emergency, our nurses and staff that are rendering care by good faith by their training that they received by licensure, they are able to intervene during that emergency situation if it is life threatening,” she said.
The district is able to run a school wide report to see everyone who has provided consent or opted out of a particular health care service.
All clinics use the Clinic Data Management System, where every clinic visit is documented with a student. Every child is searched on the system and they are able to see an automatic alert whenever a child’s name is input, indicating whether a parent did not provide consent, or have opted out of service.
If the family did not provide consent, Colon said they would work with them, call and let them know the reason why their student is in the clinic.
Duncan said at this point what they have shared with administration teachers is should continue to do what they have done. If the student received ice on the PE field they can still do that, or use booboo bags with bandages.
“What we are not looking to do is shift responsibility. It is not the teacher’s job to provide clinic services in lieu of that, however we want them to continue. We also want them to continue to send them to the clinic. It is critical they send them to the clinic. There might not be a medical emergency that might turn into a medical emergency,” Duncan said. “They still have an overall look by the nurse before the parent is called. The role is to contact the parent.”