SB 379: Pupil health: oral health assessment.

Existing law requires a pupil, while enrolled in kindergarten in a public school, or while enrolled in first grade in a public school if the pupil was not previously enrolled in kindergarten in a public school, to present proof of having received an oral health assessment by a licensed dentist or other licensed or registered dental health professional operating within his or her scope of practice that was performed no earlier than 12 months prior to the date of the initial enrollment of the pupil. Existing law specifies that a school district or county office of education is not precluded from developing a schoolsite-based oral health assessment to comply with that requirement. Existing law requires a public school, using a standardized notification form developed and posted online by the State Department of Education in consultation with interested persons, to notify parents and legal guardians of the assessment requirement. Existing law requires a school district to send a report by December 31 of each year containing information related to the assessments to the county office of education in the county in which the school district is located. Existing law requires the Office of Oral Health of the Chronic Disease Control Branch of the State Department of Public Health to conduct an evaluation of, and submit a report related to, these requirements by January 1, 2010.

This bill would require the State Department of Education to also consult with the state dental director in developing and posting online the standardized notification form and would require the department, in consultation with those entities, to revise the standardized form as necessary. The bill would require the standardized form to also include specified information on parental rights relating to schoolsite oral health assessments. The bill would require a school district to instead submit the report to a system designated by the state dental director for the collection of those reports or to the county office of education, or both, by July 1 of each year and would require a school district to include in the report the total number of pupils required to submit an assessment who are assessed and found to have had caries experience. To the extent these requirements would impose additional duties on public schools and school districts, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would encourage all school districts that have fulfilled the annual July 1 report requirement by submitting a report to the county office of education and all county offices of education to submit the report to a system designated by the state dental director for that purpose. The bill would require the Office of Oral Health to conduct or provide for the conducting of periodic evaluations of the pupil oral health assessment requirements.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.