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The Arkansas Migrant Education Program designates a portion of their budget to provide health services to eligible migrant students who are at risk of missing school or doing poorly in school due to health problems such as toothaches, hearing deficits, vision problems, minor childhood illnesses and injuries, and lack of required immunizations. The limited migrant health funds are available after all reasonable efforts to secure non-migrant assistance have been exhausted.
The health services provided may include but are not limited to: health education, health advocacy, health kits/supplies, mini-physicals conducted by your school nurse or migrant nurse, dental fillings, extractions, sealants, eye exam, glasses, doctor appointments for minor illnesses/injuries, and short term prescriptions. All health needs requiring appointments must be authorized by the migrant nurse, prior to the appointment.
The migrant nurse may visit your school one to two times a year and as requested by the school districts migrant clerk or school nurse to conduct health screenings. You may call her if you are ready to schedule your schools visit, or you may wait for her to call you. Steps to take prior to her visit:
1.
Notify your schools principals, office staff, school nurses, and teachers of the scheduled visit.
2.
The migrant clerk will list all of the migrant students to be seen on the Health Services Reporting
Form. Please review the list and make sure it is complete. Include any students that have been noted to have any health needs. Please let the migrant nurse know if there are students that have moved and where, prior to the visit.
3.
Obtain a copy of any results of current vision and hearing screenings, if completed by the school nurse. If the vision and hearing screenings have not been done, the migrant nurse will do them.
Provide these results to the migrant nurse on the day of the visit.
4.
Arrange for the use of a room for the migrant nurse to perform the mini-physicals.
Prior to leaving, the nurse will review the findings of the mini-physicals and provide you with a list.
The migrant nurse, with your assistance, will send the attached parent letter, letting the parents know the findings of their child’s screening. The migrant clerk will need to provide your school nurse with a copy of the hearing, vision, and dental evaluations performed by the migrant nurse.
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The students that were identified as having health needs by the migrant nurse or your school nurse will need referrals to the indicated physician, dentist, audiologist, and/or optometrist. Following are the steps to take for scheduling appointments:
1.
Check the migrant student’s end of eligibility (EOE), to make sure they are still eligible to receive services.
2.
Discuss the problem with the parents. They may be calling you, due to the parent letter sent home with the student by the migrant nurse, or the parents may be calling you to let you know the student is missing school due to an illness or has dental problems, etc.
3.
Find out if the student has health insurance (private insurance or AR Kids). If they have insurance, they will need to use it. In some cases, we may agree to assist with co-pays or the balance the insurance doesn’t cover. However, this must be approved by the migrant nurse after all other non-migrant sources are exhausted.
4.
Ask the parents what day would work best for them to take their child to the doctor. If the parents are unable to take their child to see the doctor, you will need to refer to your school district’s policies on transporting students.
5.
Call the appropriate doctor, dentist, optometrist, etc. Explain the migrant program to them, if they are not familiar with it. Encourage them to provide a discount, since we are limited in our funding. Schedule the child for an appointment. Inform that office that you, the clerk, or the migrant nurse will be faxing the health authorization forms indicating the authorized amount of payment, and the billing address.
6.
Fill out the Migrant Health Authorization with your name, address and contact numbers in case the office needs to talk with you.
7.
Call the parents to inform them of the appointment. Prior to the appointment, provide the parents
(and/or migrant nurse, with the Migrant Health Authorization form and if needed, the
Prescription Authorization form.
All of these forms may be downloaded from migrant.k12.ar.us
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to contact your migrant nurse.
Jennifer Black, LPN
E-mail: jennifer.black@wscstarfish.com
Office: 479-965-2191
Western Arkansas Education Service Cooperative
3010 East State Hwy 22
Branch, AR 72928
Fax: 479-965-2723
Cell: 479-965-5996
Revised-AUG 2013
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