Using School Health Regulations for School Health
Policy and Environmental Change
The
Rules and Regulations for School Health Programs are jointly promulgated
by the Rhode Island Departments of Health and Education. These regulations have the power of law and
have been used to bring about policy and environmental change in many areas of
school health. Three examples are
provided here:
§
Playground
safety: All school playground surfaces
and equipment must comply with the most recent version of the Handbook for
Public Playground Safety issued by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety
Commission.
§
Chemical
safety: A list of over 500 chemicals
with toxic, explosive, carcinogenic or other unsafe effects have been banned
from schools, effective
§
Diabetes
care: Schools must have policies in
place that allow students with diabetes to self-manage their symptoms in the
classroom or in any other spaces in the school, including self-testing, snacks,
water, etc.
The intended outcomes in
these three areas are:
§
Playgrounds: to ensure that all school playgrounds meet
the US Consumer Product Safety Commission guidelines to reduce risks of
injury. Playgrounds were to meet
guidelines by
§
Chemical
safety: to ensure that high risk
chemicals (explosives, carcinogens, toxins, etc.) were permanently removed from
all RI schools to reduce incidences of injury or disease caused by these
chemicals. No purchasing of banned
chemicals by October 2003; no banned chemicals in schools by
§
Diabetes
care: to ensure consistent policies
across districts and schools within districts that promoted self-management of
diabetes to allow for tight control of symptoms to reduce long-term health
effects and acute episodes in school.
Policies to be in place by
Policy/Environmental Change Initiation
Playgrounds - CDC-funded an
injury prevention project that assessed all school playgrounds and produced a
report summarizing the findings that demonstrated high risks in many of RI’s
school playgrounds.
Chemical safety - A
multi-agency, public-private partnership was aware of high risk situations in
science laboratories in schools. Members
included the Department of Health, Department of Education, Department of
Environmental Management, Department of Labor (OSHA unit),
Diabetes care - Grassroots
efforts of parents with children with diabetes, along with multiple requests
for clarification of policy by school nurses and administrators necessitated
the need of a systemic approach to diabetes care management in schools.
Public Health Agency Roles
The Rhode Island Department
of Health worked collaboratively with the Department of Education to:
§
Convene
stakeholder groups;
§
Provide technical
and content expertise;
§
Provide testimony
at hearings;
§
Organize and
facilitate hearings;
§
Disseminate
information;
§
Facilitate or
participate in training and professional development;
§
Provide
regulatory language;
§
Provide legal
review;
§
Maintain
regulations on website.
Major Partners
In addition to the Department
of Health the following were major partners in this effort:
§
Rhode Island
Department of Education for all sections of the regulations.
§
Other state
departments, community based organizations, advocacy groups, professional
associations, etc., as appropriate to content.
Official Support
The major public officials
who supported this effort were the Commissioner of Education, Director of
Health, Board of Regents, select legislators, and Directors of other state
agencies as appropriate to content.
Results from the Policy/Environmental Change
There
is an Annual School Health Report filed by districts reporting on compliance
with regulations and statutes. This
allows State level tracking on self-reported compliance. The Departments of Health and Education also
track compliance by monitoring the level of complaints or questions of
clarification regarding these policies and their impact on students, families
and schools.
Opposition
1. Playgrounds - The opposition was from School
Committees who knew that achieving compliance would cost money. Support was secured when a two year
compliance period, was added from the time of implementation of the regulation
to the date it became effective. Some
schools felt they should raze the playground and not build another one, rather
than pay for compliance. There is no data on which schools razed the
playground, paid for compliance and or built a new playground.
2. Chemical safety - Some science teachers were
concerned about the list of prohibited chemicals because they used these items
in instructive units and would have to change their experiments. Everyone was concerned about the cost of the
clean out, cost of doing the inventory, clean out and legally disposing of
chemicals. There was also concern that
districts did not know enough about chemical disposal to do the job safely and
didn't have funds to contract it out.
State and private partnerships provided funding and technical assistance
to all school districts to ensure compliance
3. Diabetes - No real opposition was
experienced. There was a need to come to consensus on wording.
Lessons Learned
Key
stakeholders from a broad range of constituencies must be involved from the
early stages of policy or environmental change to surface concerns, to reach
compromises, and to develop buy-in from stakeholders to support and implement
changes.
Submitted By
Rosemary Reilly-Chammat
Manager, Coordinated School
Health Program
Rhode Island Department of
Health
3 Capitol Hill
401-222-5922
401-222-1442 FAX