Wachusett Regional School District Health Screenings
105 CMR 200.000: Physical Examination of School Children provides regulatory guidance on conducting health screenings including physical exams, vision and hearing screening, and height and weight measurements. These regulations define when each type of screening must be done, who may perform screenings, screening exemptions, and describe referral and record keeping requirements. Note that these regulations may change from time to time to reflect best practices or revisions in the law.
Scoliosis
Height / Weight / BMI
Hearing
Vision
SBIRT
Screening Opt-Out Response
SBIRT - Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment
The purpose of this effort is to prevent, or at least delay, alcohol, marijuana or other drug use. The SBIRT program reinforces healthy decisions and addresses concerns about substance use to improve health, safety and success in school.
All Massachusetts public schools must include a verbal substance use preventive screening as part of their yearly mandated universal health-screening programs. Our district will use the Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) protocol with students in grades (7 & 10). Students will be asked 4 questions in private. Then there will be a one-on-one conversation between each student
and a school nurse or counselor.
We will use the CRAFFT-II screening tool, the most commonly used substance use screening tool for adolescents. All screenings will be held in private one-on-one sessions with one of the specially trained nurses or counselors. Students who are not using substances will have their healthy choices reinforced. When any student reports using alcohol or other drugs, or seems at risk for future substance use, the screener will ask 5 more questions, provide brief feedback and have a brief conversation with that student.
-What your child tells the screener is confidential and will not be shared with any other person without prior written consent of the student, parent, or guardian, except in cases of immediate medical emergency or when disclosure is otherwise required by state law.
-No written record of the results of this verbal screening are kept with information that identifies any individual student.
- Screening results will not be put with any other information that identifies any child.
- Screening results will not be included in your child’s school record.