Student Health Care Amendment Act of 2026
The Student Health Care Amendment Act of 2026 updates several District of Columbia school health laws to match current Department of Health practices. It requires annual submission of standardized Certificate of Health and Certificate of Oral Health forms for students in public, public charter, private, and independent schools, and directs the Mayor/Department of Health to develop and post those forms. The health certificate must include reporting on blood lead levels at specified ages or grade levels, and the bill removes older, narrower lead-testing language in favor of the new standardized health form process.
The bill also revises the District’s student access-to-treatment framework by treating epinephrine as an undesignated emergency medication and shifting management of student epinephrine access in public schools from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to DC Health. In addition, it redesignates the Maryland Poison Center of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy as the District’s poison control center, and repeals provisions tied to the Perinatal and Infant Health Advisory Committee and related conforming sections. The measure is largely a technical and administrative update, intended to align the code with existing program operations and vendor arrangements.
The bill amends the Student Health Care Act of 1985, the Student Access to Treatment Act of 2007, the Poison Control Center Designation Act of 2020, and parts of the Community Health Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018, while also making conforming amendments to related laws. It changes who administers school epinephrine policy, standardizes school health and oral health documentation, and updates the District’s designated poison control center. According to the fiscal impact statement, the changes are expected to have no additional cost because they reflect current practice and existing DC Health administration.
The overall sentiment appears favorable and noncontroversial. The Mayor’s transmittal describes the bill as a way to protect students, parents, and school personnel by streamlining health documentation and codifying programmatic changes already in place. The Attorney General found the draft legally sufficient, and the Chief Financial Officer concluded that funds are sufficient to implement it. No committee transcripts or recorded votes were provided, but the available materials suggest administrative support rather than opposition.
The main points of potential contention are institutional and operational rather than ideological. The bill transfers responsibility for undesignated epinephrine from OSSE to DC Health, which changes agency roles and could matter to school administrators. It also replaces the District’s existing poison control center designation with the Maryland Poison Center, which may be notable because it changes the District’s external public health vendor relationship. Finally, the repeal of provisions governing the Perinatal and Infant Health Advisory Committee indicates a restructuring of maternal and infant health advisory functions, though no explicit opposition is shown in the provided materials.