§ 909. School hygiene districts. 1. The board of supervisors of any county, with the approval of the commissioner of education, shall have power to establish in such county a school hygiene district which shall include the supervisory district or districts in such county, as defined in this chapter. The board of education of any union free school district of four thousand five hundred or more population, which employs a superintendent of schools, or of any city having a population of less than fifty thousand, within such county, may at any time adopt a resolution requesting that such union free school district or city be included within such school hygiene district, and after the approval of such request by the district committee on school hygiene, herein-below mentioned, and by the commissioner of education, and upon the subsequent filing by the clerk of such board of education of a certified copy of such resolution and of a certified copy of such approvals with the clerk of the board of supervisors, such union free school district or city shall be included within such school hygiene district.

Ask a legal question, get an answer ASAP!
Click here to chat with a lawyer about your rights.

2. When such a school hygiene district is established, as hereinabove provided, the board of supervisors shall appropriate funds for the salary and necessary expenses of a district director of school hygiene. Funds may also be appropriated for assistants to the director of school hygiene. Within thirty days after such appropriation is made the chairman of the board of supervisors shall call a meeting, to be held at a date as early as practicable, of the district superintendents and school superintendents in such school hygiene district together with the chairman of the board of supervisors, at which meeting such persons shall organize themselves into a district committee on school hygiene and shall elect a chairman thereof. In any school hygiene district which includes part or all of a county health district, as defined in the public health law, the district health officer of such county health district shall be a member of such committee. The district director of school hygiene and assistants shall be appointed by and work under the direction of such district committee on school hygiene. They shall meet the qualifications established by the commissioner of education and be certificated as supervisors of teachers. Any person appointed as such district director of school hygiene shall be a physician duly licensed and registered to practice in this state and shall have practiced as a physician, or been engaged in public health work, for at least two years.

3. It shall be the duty of the district director of school hygiene to advise, assist, and exercise general supervision over, medical inspectors, dentists and school nurses in the public schools in such school hygiene district; to keep informed as to their work and require such reports from them as he may deem necessary; to see that suitable recommendations based on the findings of the medical inspectors in their examinations of pupils are brought to the attention of their teachers and of those in parental relation to such pupils; to aid, and keep informed as to the work of, oral hygienists, nutrition workers, and other school employees engaged in health work in such schools; to inspect, and report to the proper authorities on, the sanitary conditions of school buildings, and in other ways to promote the physical welfare and health education of pupils. Whenever the board of supervisors, or, in a county constituting, in whole or in part, a county health district, the district health officer thereof, shall, under any provisions of law now in force or hereafter enacted, assign any public health nurse to the duties of a school nurse in any school or schools within a school hygiene district, she may be assigned to perform such duties under the direct control of the district director of school hygiene of such school hygiene district. Such district director of school hygiene shall be subject to supervision by the state medical inspector of schools.

4. If it be ascertained upon any test or examination held by a medical inspector under the provisions of section nine hundred four of this article in any of the school districts within a school hygiene district that any of the pupils are afflicted with defective sight or hearing or other physical disability and the parents have been duly notified as to the existence of such defects and physical disability and are unable to provide the necessary relief and treatment for such pupils and such fact is reported by said medical inspector to the district director of school hygiene, such district director shall have power and it shall be his duty to provide relief for such pupils within the amount appropriated for such purpose by the board of supervisors.

5. The board of supervisors, after determining the amount of the appropriation necessary for the salary and expenses of such district director of school hygiene and assistants, shall levy one-half of such amount by tax on the towns, union free school districts and cities, if any, included within such school hygiene district, and shall apportion such amount, so levied, among such towns, union free school districts and cities, according to the assessed valuation of the taxable property therein. Whenever a board of supervisors shall make such an appropriation and levy such a tax, the commissioner of education shall apportion to each such town, union free school district and city, an amount equal to that so levied upon each such respective town, union free school district or city. The board of supervisors shall likewise, after determining the amount of the appropriation necessary for expenses incurred for the relief of pupils under subdivision four of this section, levy the total amount by tax upon the towns, union free school districts and cities, if any, included within such school hygiene district, and shall apportion such amount so levied among such towns, union free school districts and cities according to the assessed valuation of the taxable property therein. The sums collected from the taxes so levied, and the amount apportioned by the commissioner of education, shall be paid to the county treasurer of such county, who shall expend such moneys for the purposes hereinabove provided and in the same manner as other county charges are paid.