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Wednesday, February 14, 2007 

Inhofe Bill Requires Parental Consent for Head Start Physical Exams

U.S. Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.) yesterday praised the inclusion of his legislation requiring parental consent for non-emergency intrusive physical examinations in the Head Start Reauthorization Act of 2007 (S.556). Sen. Inhofe has introduced his legislation (S.174) to amend the Head Start Act in the 108th, 109th, and 110th Congresses. “Young children attending Head Start programs should not be subjected to these intrusive physical exams without prior knowledge and consent of their parents,” Inhofe said. “As a father and a grandfather, I believe it is vital for parents to be informed about what is happening to their children in the classroom. I am pleased that after my continued efforts there will finally be definitive language in federal law prohibiting these exams without parental consent.” Senator Inhofe first introduced this legislation when several constituents raised concerns about their children receiving intrusive exams without their consent. While the Department of Health and Human Services administered general exam guidelines to agencies, the U.S. Code is not clear about prohibiting them without parental consent, thus leading to the problem the parents encountered. Below is an excerpt from the Tulsa case that motivated Sen. Inhofe to sponsor this legislation: Dubbs v Head Start Inc. In this civil rights action, parents of eight pre-school children enrolled in the Head Start program in Tulsa, Oklahoma, complain that their children were subjected to intrusive physical examinations, including genital examinations and blood tests, on school premises without parental notice or consent. They claim that the Head Start agency, defendant Tulsa Community Action Project, falsely represented to medical personnel that consent forms had been obtained for each of the children and insisted on examinations even for children with up-to-date physicals supplied by their own doctors. They claim that these examinations violated their rights under the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution and under state law. On November 5, 1998, Peggy Terry, a registered nurse and a CAP employee, entered a classroom of pre-school children participating in the Head Start program at Roosevelt Elementary in Tulsa. She announced that the children were to be taken to a another classroom in the building for physical examinations. One parent, Misti Dubbs, who was employed as an aide in the Head Start program, protested that CAP had not obtained consent for the examinations and that many of the families had already turned in physical examination reports from their own doctors. When nurse Terry insisted on examinations for all the children, Mrs. Dubbs approached a KD supervisor who in turn consulted the supervisor of employees at KD's Roosevelt site. Neither of these supervisors intervened. CAP had previously told the County Health Department that CAP would obtain the requisite consent from parents prior to the medical examinations. Relying on that representation, the Health Department conveyed this information to nurses Strayhorn and Baker. On November 5, Strayhorn and Baker arrived at Roosevelt before the appointed time for the exams and queried the CAP Head Start representative, Peggy Terry, about whether the children's parents had completed consent forms. Strayhorn and Baker looked for consent forms in the students' file folders and found none. The nurses raised concerns about the absence of consent forms with nurse Terry, but Terry assured them that CAP had previously obtained consent and that the proper forms were on file. Strayhorn and Baker relied on that information and proceeded with the exams. The central question in this case is whether CAP and the other defendants had a reasonable basis for believing that the parents had consented to the examinations. In a series of orders, the district court disposed of all claims against all defendants, either on dismissal for failure to state a claim on which relief may be granted or on summary judgment. The district court then ordered the plaintiffs to pay the costs of the litigation. Read the full opinion.

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Posted at 2/14/2007 08:33:00 AM


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