Existing law requires the governing board of any school district to make rules for the physical examination of pupils that will ensure proper care of the pupils and proper secrecy with regard to any defect noted. Existing law allows the parent or legal guardian having control or charge of any child enrolled in a public school to file annually a statement in writing, signed by the parent or legal guardian, that he or she will not consent to an examination of his or her child. Existing law exempts a child from physical examinations once such a statement is filed with the principal.

This bill would require 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, no later than May 31 of the school year, 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. The bill would excuse a parent or legal guardian from complying with the above requirement by indicating on a specified form that the oral health assessment could not be completed because of one or more specified reasons. The bill would require public schools to send a notification of the assessment requirement to the parent or legal guardian of the pupil subject to that requirement, including a standardized form that can be used for an assessment or on which the parent or legal guardian can indicate one of several specified reasons why an assessment cannot be completed. The bill would require all public schools, after receiving completed assessments, and by December 31 of each year, to send a report, as specified, to the local health officer of the county office of education in which the school is located. The bill would not preclude a school district or county office of education from developing a schoolsite-based oral health assessment to comply with these provisions. The bill would require the Office of Oral Health of the Chronic Disease Control Branch of the State Department of Health Services to conduct an evaluation of the requirements imposed by the bill and prepare and submit a report to the Legislature by January 1, 2010, that discusses any improvements in the oral health of children resulting from the imposition of those requirements. The bill would authorize the Office of Oral Health to receive private funds and contract with the University of California to fulfill those duties.

By requiring public schools to perform additional duties, this bill would impose a state‑mandated local program.

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 these statutory provisions.

The bill would require that funds from a specified item of the Budget Act of 2006 be used to offset any reimbursement to local educational agencies provided pursuant to those provisions regarding costs mandated by the state pursuant to the bill.