Appendix A: California Department of Education (CDE) K.C. Settlement Agreement and Legal Advisory
providers may be “permitted to supervise the health and physical development of pupils” (§
49422, subd. (a)).
In adopting section 49423, the Legislature repealed and reenacted former section
11753.1. (Stats. 1968, ch. 681, § 1, p. 1378, repealed and reenacted as § 49423 by Stats. 1976,
ch. 1010, § 2, p. 3615.) The Legislature’s reason for authorizing school personnel to administer
medications, according to the original statutes legislative history, was to avoid requiring children
“to leave school during the day for necessary medication” or compelling their parents “to pay
extra sums for a school visit by the physician.” (Assem. Ed. Com., Analysis of Assem. Bill No .
1066 (1968 Reg. Sess.) p. 1.)
Section 49423, like its statutory predecessor, did not require implementing regulations
and was thus self-executing. In the ensuing decades, however, some schools refused to
administer prescribed medication to students. Noting this, the Superintendent in a 1997 letter to
school superintendents reminded local school administrators that federal law permitted students
to receive medication during the schoolday, and that medication could properly be administered
by unlicensed “personnel who have been appropriat ely trained by a credentialed school nurse,
public health nurse, or physician.” (Superintendent Eastin, letter to superintendents of schools
(Sept. 5, 1997) p. 2.) Three years later, the same problem came to the attention of the
Legislature. A Senate floor analysis, recognizing that “federal case law requires districts to
accept responsibility to administer necessary medications,” reported complaints that “some
districts „have required parents to sign illegitimate blanket waivers that sign away their
childr en’s right to medical treatment at school as a condition of enrollment or attendance. In
these instances, parents have been forced to take time off work to go to school and deliver the
BP 2006 – Provision of Healthcare Services
Page 33
Desert Mountain Special Education Local Plan Area (DMSELPA) (rev. 11/16)
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator