SENATE DOCKET, NO. 1630        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 231

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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In the Year Two Thousand Nine

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An Act Ensuring Adequate Nursing Services at Public Schools..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Section 53 of chapter 71 of the General Laws is hereby amended in its entirety to read as follows:—

Section 53. The School committee shall appoint school physicians; nurse practitioners and registered nurses with the DOE licensure, shall assign them to the public schools within its jurisdiction, shall provide them with all the proper facilities for the performance of their duties, and shall assign one or more physicians or nurse practitioners operating under the direction of the physician to the examination of children who apply for health certificates required by section eighty-seven of chapter one hundred forty-nine, but in cities where the medical inspection hereinafter prescribed is substantially provided by the board of health, said board shall appoint and assign the school physicians; nurse practitioners and registered nurses with DOE school nurse licensure, provided however that school districts must meet minimum staffing requirements of school physicians; nurse practitioners and registered nurses with DOE school nurse licensure established by the Department of Public Health and that each school with five hundred or more students shall be assigned at minimum one full-time physician, nurse practitioner or registered nurse with DOE school nurse licensure.