INDIANA: Support SB321 – School-based health centers need regulation
Our Stand: At-A-Glance
- There are currently 48 school-based health centers (SBHCs) in Indiana which are completely unregulated. The Governor’s Public Health Commission (GPHC) and the federal government (HHS) are also pushing to greatly increase that number each year. HHS just awarded $25 million in grants for this purpose, $3 million of which went to Indiana.
- If we do not act now to put protections in place, the existing and pending SBHCs will continue to completely bypass parental involvement and consent in their children’s healthcare decisions.
- Indiana’s SB321, filed by Senator Andy Zay, offers needed protections. Here’s what the bill does:
- Adds the necessary regulations to get those 48 existing SBHCs to respect the role of parents in their children’s medical care.
- Keeps schools out of the health care business and keeps health care separate from schools.
- Does not promote or in any way incentivize schools or parents to use school-based health centers.
- Provides protections for parental consent and involvement for any and all health care in schools.
- Only existing school nurse services (defined as first aid treatment of illness and injury) are allowed in schools without a parent present.
- Puts guardrails in place to protect health records from being accessible to schools and others.
- Removes vaccine records from high school transcripts where they are currently required.
- Requires parental consent for vision and hearing screenings, which currently bypass parental consent.
- Stops vaccine clinics in schools, requiring the SBHC to have a parent present just like in any other health care setting.
- With this bill, anything above and beyond the scope of the school nurse would require parental presence at the time of service. This includes mental health services, social-emotional learning that involves health care professionals, vaccine clinics, and all other agenda-driven medical interventions being pushed through schools to gain access to our children while we are not there.
- Governor Holcomb and the Indiana Department of Health oppose our bill. This fact should be a clue that our bill provides necessary protections for Hoosier parents and students.
- ACT NOW; we need your help! Call Camden, the legislative assistant for Senator Baldwin (the Chairman of the committee where the bill is being heard) and very politely ask Camden to pass along a message to Senator Baldwin. Say that you’d like him to schedule an amend-and-vote hearing for SB321 to regulate SBHCs in Indiana. You can reach Camden here: (317) 232-9490. Camden is very kind and we have worked with him before, so please make sure you thank him for helping pass along your comments. Leaving a good impression will only help.
CALL-TO-ACTION
Call Camden, the legislative assistant for Senator Baldwin (the Chairman of the committee where the bill is being heard) and very politely ask Camden to pass along a message to Senator Baldwin. Say that you’d like him to schedule an amend-and-vote hearing for SB321 to regulate SBHCs in Indiana.
You can reach Camden here: (317) 232-9490.
Camden is very kind and we have worked with him before, so please make sure you thank him for helping pass along your comments. Leaving a good impression will only help.
On mobile: scroll down to the “Our Stand” section for more information.