Arizona Nurses - Fill me in on the vision screening

[jnemartin, BSN, RN]

I just learned today that over the summer a law was passed requiring vision screenings in AZ schools, as before it was not mandatory only recommended (*for a rant about the annoying way I learned this, please see the asterisks below...).

1) Who are we screening? As in, what grades/ages. The azrepublic article I found says: "Students just entering school. Students who receive or are being considered to receive special education services. Students whose teachers have requested a screening. Students not reading at grade level by third grade." The actual law is not even this specific. https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/54leg/1R/bills/SB1456H.htm

2) Who is responsible for training us to screen (dept public health, dept of education, or is no certification required?).

3) Who are we reporting this to?

4) When is it due?

*RANT here: My school has 2 campuses, 2 nurses and 1 set of shared administrators (no lead nurse, although I am usually the one that coordinates between the two campuses). The nurse from the other campus called me today and said a few weeks ago, she learned about this new law on the news and put a request in to admin to hire a company to come in and do the screenings... AT HER SCHOOL ONLY. So she found a company, got a budget passed, and scheduled them to do both hearing and vision screenings... AT HER SCHOOL ONLY. I have my hearing screenings scheduled for next week - done by me. and when I'm done with the screenings, I go on maternity leave. So I have no time to do the vision screenings before this baby comes, and now I'm doing the double the work because I will probably have to . I am so annoyed.

[CanIcallmymom, BSN, RN]

I'm not sure who certifies you for hearing/vision in your state, but in TX we are certified by the Dept of Health.

I googled your state's website (and a few others), and it doesn't look like it is listed yet. Perhaps it was just signed into law and hasn't started yet, officially?

https://www.azed.gov/shs/schoolhealth/guidelines/

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2019/06/11/arizona-schools-soon-get-free-vision-screenings-students-doug-ducey/1414387001/

https://cms.azed.gov/home/GetDocumentFile?id=5accc2bf3217e114c088c729

[jnemartin, BSN, RN]

Apparently, the law was signed over summer and in effect as of August 2019. I am a member of our Az SN association, and no word from them, as well as no word from the Dept of Health (in charge of hearing screenings). Also, I'm in a private school system, so there is no district nurse or someone that might be more connected/well-informed than me to go to. No one seems to know anything.