Health Services : Guidelines & Policies

Health Issues

If a student becomes ill or injured at school and needs to leave school, the parent will be contacted.  In case a parent cannot be reached, the office must have the phone number of a responsible person who can be reached at all times who will assume temporary care of your child.  In emergency situations, when parents or a responsible person cannot be reached, medical attention will be provided at a medical facility at the parent's expense.  Patents of students with communicable or contagious diseases are asked to notify the nurses' office of the disease.  Students with fever should not return to school until they are fever-free for 24 hours

Emergency Information Form

All students are required to have an emergency information form on file in the nurse's office.  Please list at least three neighbors or nearby relatives who will assume temporary care of your child if you cannot be reached.  If you have a change of address or need to include another emergency number, please contact the school nurse so that the emergency form can be updated.  Please include any medical problems that your child may have.

Chronic Medical Problems

If a student has an ongoing medical problem which requires special attention and/or restrictions at school, parents will need to furnish the school with an updated written note from the physician at the beginning of each school year and additional information as needed.

Medical Guidelines

Please do not send your child to school if the following exist:

  1. Fever of 100.4 degrees or greater.  Please do not give aspirin, Tylenol, etc. for fever before sending your child to school.
  2. Vomiting
  3. Diarrhea

Health Clinics that Offer Influenza Vaccines

Bell County Health Department
509 S. 9th Street
Temple, Texas
778-4766

Hillcrest Clinic
255 Sparta Road
Belton, Texas
933-0101

King's Daughters' Clinic
1300 E. 6th Avenue
Belton, Texas
939-3715

Scott & White--Belton Clinic
1505 N. Main
Belton, Texas
933-4000

Physical Screening

As a required state law, the following health appraisals will be conducted on students of BISD:

  1. Vision and hearing screenings will be conducted on all students in grades Pre-K, K, 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, and 9th as well as all students who are new to Texas.  Students, parents, and teachers may request screening anytime during the school year.  If problems are found, a parent/guardian will be notified by letter and/or by phone.
  2. Spinal screening will be conducted on all 5th & 8th grade students and students in grades 6th & 9th who were not screened in the prior school year.  If medical problems are found, parent/guardian will be notified by letter and/or by phone.  If you do not want your child's spine checked by the school health service, staff, you must provide the school nurse with documentation of results from your physician by the end of the first semester.

Medications

No medication will be given without a written order from your doctor and written permission from a parent. The following forms may be downloaded and completed and must be returned to your school nurse:

This includes all prescription and over-the-counter medications such as aspirin, Tylenol, antihistamines, throat lozenges, cough syrup, cough drip, etc.  Under NO circumstances will medications be administered that is not brought to school in the prescription bottle or original container.  The school does not furnish medications.  Medications sent to school for a student will be kept in the nurse's office.  Please make every effort to give our child's medication at home if possible.

Drug Safety Tip Line

Call toll -free: 1-877-277-3812         Or on the web: www.ChooseToCare.com

Choose-To-Care is both a call-in and web-based "tip-line" program for students, parents, and Belton ISD employees to provide information about student safety issues. Choose-To-Care is not meant to replace the one-to-one relationship between administrators, faculty, and students, but allows for anonymous reporting to be monitored by Belton ISD personnel.  Parents are encouraged to fill out the School Safety and Drug Assessment Survey between December 15, 2006, and March 15, 2007, by accessing the ChooseToCare website, choose School Safety Survey, enter Key 42G5Q8, and take the survey.

Sex Education

         www.worththewait.org

Worth the Wait is the sex education program developed by Scott and White, which Belton ISD uses for grades six and above. Parents are encouraged to access this website to be informed about the material presented.

CATCH Program

The CATCH Program (Coordinated Approach to Child Health) is "catching on" in Belton ISD.   The program creates a coordinated effort in school classrooms, in PE classes, on playgrounds, and in cafeterias, as well as information for parents to use at home, to help children and their families adopt healthy eating and physical activity behaviors.   CATCH was the largest school-based health promotion study ever conducted in the United States.   As reported in the "Journal of the American Medical Association." CATCH showed that eating and physical activity behaviors can change for the better.
For additional information go to www.catchtexas.org.

CATCH is:

*A school health program for elementary-aged children;

*A proven program to help schools reach the goals of increasing physical activity during PE, providing children with nutrition knowledge and skills, and reducting the amount of fat and saturated fat in school lunches;

*A coordinated effort that integrates a classroom health education curriculum, physical education, the school cafeteria, and family involvement and support.

Parents can help by:

*Encouraging more physical activity and less television watching;

*Serving nutritious foods, and discouraging overeating;

*Engaging in physical activity as a family;

*Helping with CATCH Home Team assignments;

*Support CATCH efforts at school;

*Sending health snacks to school.

Implementation of the CATCH program can significantly lower the amount of saturated fat content in school lunches, increase the level of physical activity during PE classes, and increase nutrition knowledge.   In addition, CATCH has been approved the Texas Education Agency as a program that meets the requirements of Senate Bill 19, and it was unanimously approved by the Texas State Board of Education as a diabetes education program.  

For more information on program implementation, parents are encouraged to contact their child's campus principal.