blogging on education in Worcester, in Massachusetts, and in America
Thursday, February 25, 2010
BMI is coming your way
(it's required) Being approved tonight, coming out of the TLSS subcommittee is the Body Mass Index, an "unfunded mandate" as Mr. O'Connell points out. (He's looking for reimbursement from the state.)
As a district, no. As a parent, yes. You may choose not to have BMI measured at school. In fact, Mrs. Mullaney asked that this be made quite clear to parents moving forward.
Is there an implementation plan? Will the children and parents get an explanation of BMI? Mr. Monfredo said that at the parents request the data could be interpreted by the school nurse, in fact I think he said the nurses would diagnose. The nurses cannot diagnose...the childs doctor or np should make a diagnosis
The pamphlet that goes home with the number is supposed to explain it ('though I should note that Mrs. Mullaney questioned how well it did so). All the nurses are going to do, to my knowledge, is give the BMI number. As you correctly point out, anything further should be done by the child's doctor.
And again, this is a state law that we're having to implement.
4 comments:
Is opting out an option?
As a district, no.
As a parent, yes. You may choose not to have BMI measured at school. In fact, Mrs. Mullaney asked that this be made quite clear to parents moving forward.
Is there an implementation plan? Will the children and parents get an explanation of BMI? Mr. Monfredo said that at the parents request the data could be interpreted by the school nurse, in fact I think he said the nurses would diagnose. The nurses cannot diagnose...the childs doctor or np should make a diagnosis
The pamphlet that goes home with the number is supposed to explain it ('though I should note that Mrs. Mullaney questioned how well it did so). All the nurses are going to do, to my knowledge, is give the BMI number. As you correctly point out, anything further should be done by the child's doctor.
And again, this is a state law that we're having to implement.
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