10028 - Health Policies

    
Health education should become a part of the student's everyday learning process. The foundation of health care and health education should be based on growth and maturation of students, their needs, capacities to learn, ability to analyze and solve problems, and their desire to see themselves as total persons, not as a set of teeth, a heart, or a pair of lungs.

Health education should be a vital force in closing the gap between health discoveries and their application. Health education in schools should provide essential scientific knowledge and foster wholesome attitudes and practices for healthful living.

The following individuals are responsible for school health education:

All elementary teachers
Secondary teacher's assigned health and science classes 
School Nurse     
County officer, county health educator 
Local M.D.'s and dentists

Piute School District is committed to providing the following health services:
Health Appraisal which involves:
Continuous observation by teachers
Screening including:

Vision tests every year for all students in elementary grades, and other students on request, and a health examination for 7th graders.

Hearing tests for all students in grade levels K, 1 , 2, and 3. Also, hearing tests for referrals from all levels as needed from school personnel and M.D. entering kindergarten students and all students participating in athletics.

Health counseling will be provided by the school nurse to parents, administrators, teachers, and students.
Recommendations and referral to other agencies will be made as deemed necessary by the school nurse or principal.

Health education will be provided throughout the elementary grades, with specific health classes required in grades 8-11, according to State Healthy Lifestyle Core.

EMERGENCY CARE
State health policy requires an examination for all Emergency care will be provided for students who become sick or injured at school. Parents will be notified of a child's accident or sudden illness as soon as possible. When the emergency is so grave as to suggest the need for immediate care (hospitalization or Dr.'s office, suspected fractures, severe head injuries or  sudden abdominal pains), there should be no delay in securing medical attention.

The names and phone numbers of pupil's personal physician, parents (home and work), and an alternate to contact in case parents are not available, should be readily accessible.
The school has responsibility for giving immediate care in case of an accident or sudden illness as well as notifying parents, getting student home or to some other place of safety, and for guiding parents, where necessary, to source of treatment.

The member of the school staff who notifies a parent of a student's sickness or injury should be prepared to help an uncertain parent decide what is to be done for the student.
If student is ill and parents need to be contacted, the teacher should consult with the principal. The student should not contact home! An accident report will be completed for each accident by the staff member who handles the situation. The principal will review the report and forward it to the district office.

First aid supplies will be available in every school in a convenient place.

Communicable disease control will include the following:

Yearly Tuberculin testing of all new school employees in the district. Tuberculin testing of new students moving to Utah from identified high risk areas. Immunization program including:
DPT, (4 doses) polio, (3 doses) MMR, (2 doses) required of all entering kindergarten students or written exemption. Second dose of MMR is recommended for any age student.
An up-to-date file on all students K-12 showing a record of required immunization or written exemption.
Immunization clinics are held regularly through the local health department, where all of the required immunizations and boosters can be obtained. Td boosters are recommended every ten years for all students and staff (usually at the high school level about age 15) Coordination of disease control activities by the school nurse including:

All policies relating to control of communicable disease.
Decisions regarding closing schools when epidemics occur or threaten. Although a health department has legal authority to close a school during a serious epidemic, it would take such action only after consultation with the school administrator, school nurse and superintendent.

Health records will be kept on the student's cumulative record and will include the following information:

Vision tests - K-7 Hearing tests -K-3 Record of immunization - all students

Serious medical problems - all student