Health/Physical Status

Health/Physical Status- Indicate if/how student's health or physical status is impacting his/her educational performance. The school nurse is often involved in collecting information for this section of the report, if listed on the evaluation plan. 

• Medical history that could impact educational performance includes:

  • Ear infections 

  • PE Tubes

  • Vision Issues

  • Head injury

  • Excessive Absenteeism

  • Medically diagnosed conditions that the school is aware of that have educational relevance.

  • OHD Criteria: The Evaluation Report should contain specific information including: the medical diagnosis, the date of diagnosis, and the doctors name (for both initial and reevaluations). On an initial evaluation, the diagnosis must be within 12 months. 

For Initial Evaluations: If a health/physical assessment is not needed, vision/hearing screening info must be reviewed under the Background Information section.

Initial Evaluations

SLD, ASD, SLI, & DHH: A health/physical assessment by a School Nurse is not required unless the student has suspected health-related educational needs. If, however, the School Nurse is the only team member appropriate to constitute a multi-disciplinary team, then they could be invited to participate in the initial evaluation and complete a review/administration of a health/physical assessment. For initial SLD evaluations, if a health/physical assessment is not needed, vision/hearing screening information must be reviewed under the Background Information section of the evaluation report.

EBD, OHD, DCD, TBI, & PI: A health/physical assessment by a School Nurse is required because, in order to determine initial eligibility, criteria for these categories requires that the evaluation rule out contributing and exclusionary health-related factors. In the case of OHD, criteria specifically requires that the evaluation includes verification of a diagnosis/disability.

Developmental Delay: 

• If health screening was completed during early childhood screening, is available to the team, and indicates no concerns, then a health/physical assessment by a nurse would not be required. However, the screening information should be included in the ESR.

• If there was not a health assessment at screening, or if there are concerns about health, then the nurse would need to be involved in the ESR.

• If, however, the School Nurse is the only team member appropriate to constitute a multi-disciplinary team, then they could be invited to participate in the initial evaluation and complete a review/administration of the health/physical assessment.

Re-evaluations

For all categories, health/physical assessments are not required for re-evaluations, and it is the case manager and evaluation team's decision regarding whether a health/physical assessment by a School Nurse is appropriate. Two circumstances would warrant its inclusion in the evaluation plan:

• The student has suspected health-related educational needs. This may apply if, for example, the student has a medical diagnosis, the student is prescribed medication, or the student's hearing and/or vision are inadequate.

• The School Nurse is the only team member appropriate to constitute a multi-disciplinary team.

Specifically for the categories of OHD, TBI, & PI, if a health/physical assessment is not needed, a summary of the initial health/physical assessment must be included in the Background Information section.