MEDICAL INSPECTION OF SCHOOLS 



We endorse the school nurse as a most valuable adjunct 

 of medical inspection and believe that provision for the 

 employment of school nurses should be included in each law. 



THE MASSACHUSETTS LAW AND THE ENGLISH ACT 



There are two medical inspection laws which are more 

 important than any of the others as typifying the legislative 

 enactments under which the views and beliefs and the results of 

 experience of educators and physicians have been crystallized in 

 Europe and America in the field of medical inspection of schools. 

 These two laws are the English statute which became effective 

 on January i, 1908, and that of the state of Massachusetts. 

 This commonwealth, always foremost in pioneer and progressive 

 legislation, placed upon its statute books in 1906 mandatory laws 

 far more comprehensive in their provisions than the English laws. 

 In view of the fact that these two laws have served as the basis 

 for most of the bills which have since been presented in other 

 state and national legislatures, it seems worth while to quote 

 them in full here with some comment on their similarity and 

 differences. 



THE ENGLISH LAW 



The English law, known legally as Section 13 of the Admin- 

 istrative Provisions of the Education Act of 1907, in its entirety 

 is as follows: 



"13. (i) The powers and duties of a local education 

 authority under Part III of the Education Act, 1902, shall 

 include: (a) Power to provide for children attending public 

 elementary schools, vacation schools, vacation classes, play 

 centers, etc. (b) The duty to provide for the medical inspec- 

 tion of children immediately before or at the time of or as 

 soon as possible after their admission to a public elementary 

 school, and on such other occasions as the Board of Education 

 direct, and the power to make such arrangements as may be 

 sanctioned by the Board of Education for attending to the 

 health and physical condition of the children educated in pub- 

 lic elementary schools : Provided, that in any exercise of powers 

 under this section the local education authority may encourage 



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