SLS 16RS-1732 ORIGINAL
2016 Regular Session
SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 73
BY SENATORS MILLS, LAFLEUR AND THOMPSON
SENATE. Designates April 21, 2016, as School-Based Health Care Awareness Day in
Louisiana.
1 A RESOLUTION
2 To designate April 21, 2016, as School-Based Health Care Awareness Day in Louisiana.
3 WHEREAS, school-based health care facilities are an important statewide resource
4 helping to address the health care needs of underserved and uninsured children, providing
5 needed preventive, diagnostic and treatment services, including direct primary care and
6 mental health care for acute and chronic illnesses, health education, case management
7 assistance, and immunizations; and
8 WHEREAS, these facilities provide vital counseling for more recently understood
9 health care concerns that have replaced infectious diseases as the major illness of childhood,
10 including such risk factors as childhood obesity, asthma, smoking, substance abuse,
11 violence, and safety issues, as well as behavioral problems ranging from mild to severe; and
12 WHEREAS, in 1990, as policymakers became concerned with the high morbidity
13 and mortality rates of adolescents, the office of public health, within the Department of
14 Health and Hospitals, was asked to determine the feasibility of opening school-based health
15 care facilities in the state; and
16 WHEREAS, a year later, the Adolescent School Health Initiative was enacted and
17 school-based health care facilities came into existence across the state; and
18 WHEREAS, a school-based health care facility provides convenient access to
Page 1 of 3 SR NO. 73
SLS 16RS-1732 ORIGINAL
1 comprehensive, primary, and preventive physical and mental health services for public
2 school students available at the school site; and
3 WHEREAS, as students spend a significant portion of their day on school grounds,
4 school-based health care facilities offer accessible, convenient health care, while
5 encouraging family and community involvement, reducing student absenteeism, reducing
6 parental leave from work for doctor visits, and working with school personnel to meet the
7 needs of the students and their families; and
8 WHEREAS, school-based health care facilities complement school nurses and social
9 workers, where they exist, because, generally, the scope of practice of such nurses and social
10 workers is more limited than that of the school-based health care facility, which have a broad
11 mandate; and
12 WHEREAS, school-based health care facilities are able to provide comprehensive
13 health services to students, providing treatment for minor illness and injury, comprehensive
14 physicals as may be required for school-related activities, behavioral health counseling,
15 treatments for chronic diseases, required vaccines, and other beneficial services that enhance
16 the learning environment of a school; and
17 WHEREAS, at this time, sixty-two school-based health care facilities are operated
18 in twenty-seven parishes throughout the state; and
19 WHEREAS, these health care facilities serve an additional fifty-three feeder schools;
20 and
21 WHEREAS, in the 2014-2015 school year over forty-seven thousand students have
22 made nearly one hundred and fifteen thousand visits to school-based health care facilities
23 in Louisiana.
24 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate of the Legislature of Louisiana
25 does hereby designate April 21, 2016, as School-Based Health Care Awareness Day in
26 Louisiana.
27 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
28 president of the board of the Alliance on School-Based Health.
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SLS 16RS-1732 ORIGINAL
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Christine Arbo Peck.
DIGEST
SR 73 Original 2016 Regular Session Mills
Designates April 21, 2016, as School-Based Health Care Awareness Day in Louisiana.
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