The Health Department and school district plan to emphasize state-mandated student health screenings after analyzing the district’s health report.
The state Department of Public Health requires health screenings to be performed by school nurses each year. School nurses can be assisted by administrative staff trained by the nurses, Peabody Health Director Sharon Cameron said. The mandated screenings include vision, hearing, height, weight and BMI, and posture.
The majority of the screenings are done between September and December. Parents and guardians may opt out of the health screenings for their children by providing a written note to the school nurse prior to the screenings, Cameron said.
Students can also opt out themselves, which sometimes happens at the middle- and high-school level. Cameron said this is fairly rare.
In the report, there is a discrepancy between the number of students referred for a follow-up screening and the amount of completed referrals, according to Cameron.
A completed referral means that a student who was identified as needing a follow-up was able to receive that care and provide documentation to the school, Cameron said.
She said incomplete referrals are often due to a lack of insurance, health-care resources, follow-through from the families, or transportation.
Cameron said the district will “continue to educate families about the importance of screening and follow-up care, both for the students’ well-being as well as for educational success.” School nurses will also continue to follow up with family members and educate families on the availability of health resources in the community.
The school nurses also partner with the Lions Club, which through the LensCrafters OneSight Program helps provide access for prescription glasses to students who received a prescription for corrective lenses but need financial assistance, Cameron said.
“Completed referrals have been a priority for our school health program over the years,” she said. “In the past two school years, we have been able to provide increased administrative support in the health offices, so we have had the ability to perform targeted outreach to families that receive a referral.”
The state Department of Public Health’s School Health Unit has identified “enhancing screening and referral completion rates” as a priority for school districts receiving Comprehensive School Health Services grants across the state, Cameron said.
The Peabody Health Department receives $120,000 per year through the Comprehensive School Health Services program run by the state Department of Public Health. The district will use around $84,000 in fiscal year 2025 to fund a contract with the behavioral health agency Family Continuity to offer in-school behavioral health counseling to students at the district’s elementary and middle schools, she said.
The remainder of the grant funding is used for translation services and professional development for school nurses and health-clinic administrative staff and helps pay for part-time administrative support for the district’s health clinics, Cameron said.
She said the district has used CSHS funding to purchase new audiometers and vision-testing equipment to enhance the health screenings in the past.
“Having state-of-the-art screening tools has improved both the efficiency and the validity of our screening program,” Cameron said.
School Nurse Leader Brenda Wolff said the mandated health screenings help detect health conditions, such as vision and hearing problems, at a young age.
“Postural screenings can detect spinal deformities such as scoliosis, and prevent delays in treatment that can advance spine curvature and make treatment more challenging,” she said. “If these identified problems are not evaluated further by a health-care provider, a child’s ability to learn, along with their overall performance in school, can be greatly impacted. Our public-health school nursing team prioritizes these annual screenings as they are a vital component of the school health program.”
