SENATE HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES AND SENIOR
CITIZENS COMMITTEE
STATEMENT TO
SENATE, No. 1507
with committee amendments
STATE OF NEW JERSEY
DATED: OCTOBER 6, 2022
The Senate Health, Human Services and Senior Citizens
Committee reports favorably Senate Bill No. 1507 with committee
amendments.
As amended, this bill would strengthen the existing State
requirements for childhood lead screening by: (1) codifying, in the
statutory law, the existing schedule for childhood lead screening that
appears in regulations adopted by the Department of Health (DOH);
(2) requiring a child to undergo three screening tests, as opposed to the
two that are currently required by the DOH; (3) allowing health care
professionals to perform lead screenings at the point-of-care, in the
regular course of a well visit; and (4) requiring a child’s parent or
guardian to provide the child’s school with documentation showing the
child’s lead screening results, as a precondition of the child’s initial
entry into the school system.
The bill would specify, in particular, that every physician,
registered professional nurse, or health care facility, agency, or
program that is subject to the State’s childhood elevated blood lead
level prevention laws will be required to perform a lead screening on
each patient between six months and six years of age to whom services
are provided, during the course of a well visit, in accordance with the
following schedule:
1) when the child is between nine and 18 months of age;
preferably on the date of, or as close as possible to, the child’s first
birthday;
2) at least six months after the first lead screening test, when the
child is between 18 and 26 months of age; preferably on the date of, or
as close as possible to, the child’s second birthday; and
3) immediately prior to, and as a precondition of, the child’s
initial enrollment in school.
“Initial enrollment in school” is defined to mean the enrollment of
a child in a public or private pre-kindergarten class, or the enrollment
of a child in a public or private kindergarten class, whichever occurs
first. 2
A physician, registered professional nurse, or health care facility,
agency, or program performing a lead screening in accordance with
this schedule will be authorized to perform the screening on-site, at the
point of care, during the course of a well visit.
The physician, registered professional nurse, or health care facility,
agency, or program performing lead screening will be required to
record in the child’s permanent health record the date on which the
lead screening test was administered and the results of the test. This
same information will also need to be noted on any physical
examination form that a public or private school or school system
requires parents or guardians to submit as a condition of school
admission or enrollment.
Commencing with the 2024-2025 school year, the principal,
director, or other person in charge of a public or private school in this
State will be prohibited from knowingly admitting or enrolling in a
pre-kindergarten or kindergarten class any child whose parent or
guardian fails to submit acceptable documentation showing the child’s
test results for lead screening. If the documentation submitted by the
child’s parent or guardian indicates that the child has not yet been
screened for elevated blood lead levels in accordance with that testing
requirement, the child’s initial enrollment in school is to be deferred
until such time as the child has been screened, and acceptable
documentation showing the results of that screening test have been
submitted to the school.
The bill requires the DOH to modify its existing lead screening
public information campaign to inform the parents and guardians of
small children, as well as physicians, registered professional nurses,
and other health care providers, about the lead screening schedule and
requirements, and the conditions for initial school enrollment,
established by the bill. The bill additionally requires the DOH to
establish an educational outreach campaign providing the same
information to the same populations. Any information or
documentation that is prepared for the public information and
educational outreach campaigns is to be posted at a publicly accessible
location on the DOH Internet website.
The bill clarifies that any DOH regulations adopted pursuant to
P.L.1995, c.316 (C.17:48E-35.10 et al.), concerning the provision of
insurance coverage for lead screenings, are to be consistent with the
revisions to the State’s lead screening laws adopted under the bill.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS:
The committee amendments replace the outdated term “lead
poisoning” with “elevated blood lead levels” throughout the bill.
The committee amendments remove language from the bill
concerning federal clinical laboratory waivers for lead screening tests,
as these tests are already subject to a federal waiver. 3
The committee amendments revise the requirement that a child
undergo a lead screening prior to enrollment in school and have a
current lead screening test on file as a condition of enrollment in pre-
kindergarten and kindergarten, to provide that these requirements will
apply commencing with the 2024-2025 school year.
The committee amendments clarify that certain requirements under
current law related to the DOH’s lead screening public information
campaign also apply to the educational outreach campaign the DOH is
required to implement under the bill.
The committee amendments make various technical changes to
address issues involving punctuation, grammar, and syntax.