MEMORANDUM
TO:
County Superintendents
RESA Directors
County Collaborative Early Childhood Teams
County and RESA WVEIS Contacts
Special Education Directors
Student Support Services Directors
School Principals
School Nurses
FROM:
Clayton Burch, Executive Director
WVDE Office of Early Learning
DATE:
April 3, 2013
RE:
School Screening Enrollment Criteria for 2013-14 Pre-Enrollment
The spring school enrollment season is in full swing. As parents are preparing to enroll their
three, four, five and six-year-old children in school, I want to make sure that our school personnel
are also prepared to carry out the expectations of the West Virginia State Board of
Education’s Policy 2525 (Universal PreK) and Governor Earl Ray Tomblin’s Kids First Initiative
(http://www.wvkidsfirst.org/).
The State Board of Education’s Policy 2525 has required a HealthCheck or comparable
comprehensive physical examination only for enrollment into PreK since 2007. Limited massive
school screenings were removed from this policy in 2007 to align with federal Head Start
requirements to ensure students are receiving an annual well child visit from their medical home
and to prevent duplication of screening services. The Health, Nutrition and Mental Health policy
clarifications for Head Start are located
at http://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/standards/Policy%20Clarifications%20and%20FAQs/b_pc.ht
m.
The Governor’s Kids First initiative was started in collaboration with West Virginia Department
of Education (WVDE) and the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources
(WVDHHR) in conjunction with Insurance Payers (Medicaid, WVCHIPs, PEIA and HighMark).
A Superintendent’s Interpretation from June 29, 2007 supports the efforts of the Governor’s Kids
First Initiative by allowing the HealthCheck/comparable comprehensive physical from a medical
provider to meet the requirements for the limited school screenings placed in W.Va. Code §18-517 in 1979. In an effort to facilitate this process, I encourage every county to work with their
local medical providers and healthcare agencies while utilizing the services of WVDHHRRegional HealthCheck Specialist (Program Specialists http://www.dhhr.wv.gov/HealthCheck/Pages/Program_Specialists.aspx) to ensure all children
are receiving an annual well child checkup (comprehensive screening) by their medical home
indicated by documentation on the HealthCheck or comparable comprehensive physical form.
This is a true effort to utilize the time of teachers and Professional Support Personnel (school
nurses, audiologist, speech and language pathologist, etc.) to provide more direct services to the
student population with identified needs and specialized health care while allowing individualized
assessments and follow-ups for student referrals. These key professional support personnel
should ensure teachers and early education personnel are aware of any missing HealthCheck
screening components after follow-up with the medical home has proven unsuccessful. We must
work smart and in collaboration to coordinate with our community services. Please refer to the
June 29, 2007 Interpretation
at http://wvde.state.wv.us/interpretations/view/8/250/interpretation.html.
Once a new enterer has been screened through a HealthCheck/comprehensive physical, they will
not need further screenings to continue Pre-K or advance into Kindergarten within the public
school system. After a new enterer meets the enrollment criteria, all future screening will be
based on school, teacher, parent or medical provider referrals related to individual student needs
not massive screenings. As we are all aware, once entering into the educational system any
potential educational and medical deficit(s) are assessed and identified on a daily basis within the
classroom and school setting. School systems must start managing care with the medical and
dental community to ensure coordinated care with proper diagnosis and treatment.
The current electronic student records through the West Virginia Electronic Information System
(WVEIS) along with the iDevice Health Application (App) allow for health data collection for
follow-up, referral and resources to enhance early intervention and education. These data sets
gathered through HealthCheck/comprehensive physical forms need to be entered into the WVEIS
Health Screen or through the iDevice Health Application and then uploaded within the WVEIS
network to provide baseline data on each student. This data will allow schools and parents to
improve the follow-up with referrals and resources while working collaboratively with the
students’ medical and dental homes. The WVDE and WVDHHR will focus on enhancing
medical services, benefits and health promotion resources for children.
As we all work to improve the fourth year of implementation effort, please note the following:
Kids First Data Collection Expectations for 2013-2014 Pre-Enrollment
1. The 2012/13 goal of providing access to Universal Pre-K has redefined the point of
“school entry” from kindergarten to Pre-K. Therefore, the Kids First Initiative is
redefining its target population as “school enterer” instead of “kindergarten enterer.”
This means that the screening data should be entered for each child enrolling in school
whether that occurs at Pre-K or kindergarten. This also means that the Kids First funding
for uninsured children can also be used to cover children entering Pre-K.
2. The intent of the Kids First data base is to provide the baseline screening data for all
children at school entry. Therefore, every first time Pre-K/kindergarten school enterer
needs to have an accurate and complete WVEIS Wellness Screen record by the
annual “Second Month Enrollment Data Collection” deadline of the year they start
school. These data may be used as part of the WVDE’s annual school readiness profile
publication, which is used by county collaborative early childhood teams to make datadriven decisions regarding transitions and the establishment of school readiness goals.
3. The HealthCheck/comprehensive physical form may be used for enrollment of all new
enterers in Pre-K and Kindergarten. It is not recommended that county schools provide
families with copies of the HealthCheck form, as many medical providers may use an
electronic record system or another form. Please work with your Regional HealthCheck
Specialist or local medical providers to communicate the needed documented screenings
for student enrollment and to help ensure the new school enterer is healthy and ready to
learn. This information is also located in the HealthCheck Provider Manual on page 10
and on the top of the 3, 4, 5 and 6 year old forms at Provider Manual.
(http://www.dhhr.wv.gov/HealthCheck/providerinfo/Pages/ProviderManual.aspx)
4. The WVEIS-Health App was developed for easy collection of HealthCheck data for new
school enterers. The Health App allows for portable anytime access to WVEIS
classroom rosters and entry of “new” students using the downloadable school rosters.
Please remember to release the classroom roster back to WVEIS in order to transmit the
student health screening data files back to the WVEIS on the Web (WOW). If you do not
release (upload) the classroom rosters then your data will be maintained on the secured
iDevice App not in the students WOW record. The recent iOS upgrades for new
generation iDevices has led to WVEIS-Health App programming enhancements. Please
contact your RESA for specific questions related to the WVEIS- Health App.
5. WVDE HealthCheck Tools for Schools and other pertinent pre-enrollment information is
located
at http://wvde.state.wv.us/healthyschools/section6/SchoolHealthServicesUpdate.htm
under the subheading “Supporting the Medical Home Concept and Whole Child through
a HealthCheck (EPSDT) for New School Enterers”.
Please feel free to contact the WVDE Office of Healthy Schools at (304) 558-8830 if you have
questions regarding the clarifications in this memorandum. Thank you for your efforts to make
the enrollment of a new school enterer and the Governor’s Kids First Initiative successful.
WB/RJK
cc:
Robert Hull
Amelia Courts
Keith Burdette
Pat Homberg
Marshall Patton
Traci Dalton
Kim Hawkins
Ann Williams