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School Health Bulletin
March 4, 2010
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State Update - Legislators' Special Session Ends
 The month long special session, which began on February 1 with SBHC Awareness Day at the capitol, has ended.
The Network had a weekly presence at the capitol and our youth and
other advocates met with 27 percent of legislators on SBHC Day to tell
our stories and discuss the need for health care in schools.
Legislators made a few votes that may be of interest to the SBHC community:
- A balanced budget: Legislators
balanced a $185 million revenue shortfall by reducing the Business
Energy Tax Credit, cutting state agencies by .25 percent across he
board and dipping into state reserve accounts and trust funds. The
threat of future budget cuts to important health care programs remains
as revenue continues to decline, reserves are depleted and less federal
stimulus dollars are available.
- Annual sessions referred to voters:
The legislature, which currently officially meets every 2 years, has
asked voters to decide whether they should hold annual sessions. Voters
will decide whether to meet for 160 days in odd-numbered years and 35
days in even-numbered years. The limits on the length should be
noted--the average annual session in recent decades has been 191 days.
Legislators hope that annual sessions will create a more efficient and
predictable law making system.
- Physician Assistant supervision: HB
3642 allows for supervision of physician assistants by a supervisory
physician organization in addition to a supervisory physician. The
legislation will provide more flexibility in our health care delivery
system, encourage effective use of physician assistants to fill service
gaps left by a shortage of primary care physicians and immediately
expand access to well-trained, experienced health care professionals.
- Psychologists and prescriptions: SB
1046 sets up training and certification requirements to allow HB 3639
psychologists to prescribe medications. The process for developing
training requirements and the formulary will be conducted under the
auspices of the Oregon Medical Board, the licensing board for medical
doctors.
- Health care coverage for youth in
foster care: HB 3664 will allow youth who age out of foster care at 18
to continue to receive the same health coverage they had while in
foster care, which means they can even keep their same medical and
mental health providers.
- Health care providers loan repayment
program: HB 3639 will expand the student loan repayment program for
some health care providers
- Vision screening pilot HB 3626 will
implement a demonstration project to create a cost-effective,
evidenced-based vision screening program.
Keep your advocacy and communications tools close at hand
In
order to survive the current economic climate, SBHCs must educate state
legislators about the importance of providing access to health care in
school. For more information on building awareness, see our Awareness Tool Kit.
 We have also started a community resource page
where you can store your articles, research findings and related
content about the societal impact of school-based health centers.
Please contribute to this resource page
for the benefit of the SBHC community! Send us links, files,
photos and testamonials and we will store them for your future
reference.
New articles include:
- The relationship between school-based health centers and the learning environment
- Impact of school-based health center use on academic performance
Put your Advocacy skills to work on March 10!
Education
Week just circulated an invitation for people to participate in a March
10 web session on causes and prevention strategies for school dropouts.
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Empower Youth, Build Community, ACTIVATE OREGON!
We invite you to be a part of Activate Oregon Youth Summit 2010:
Youth Voice, Youth Action, March 28 - 30, 2010
120 young adults, 14 adult
mentors, numerous youth empowerment advocates and elected officials
will converge on Portland to teach and learn hands on tools that youth
can use immediately to transform the power and impact of youth voice in
your community and across Oregon. Learn more.
We will examine successful models of strengthening youth voice;
ratifying a youth bill of rights, creating a youth advisory board,
getting out the youth vote and we will brainstorm new ideas.
Youth
will select those to implement at home and develop action plans.
We will build skills to put the plan to action, like public speaking,
project management, volunteer recruitment and creating youth/adult
partnerships and take the first critical steps to make those plans a
reality.
Building
on the success of OR150's Activate Oregon, Project 2059, 4-H's Know
Your Government and Rural Development Initiative's leadership programs,
this summit, designed for and in partnership with youth, has the
singular, focused goal of amplifying youth voice on a community
level. Learn more.
Public Meeting of the Oregon Health Policy Board
OHPB to discuss how to move forward with comprehensive health reform
March 9, 2010, 1:00pm to 5:00pm
Market Square Building, 1515 SW 5th Ave., 9th Floor, Portland
Live Web streamed at http://tinyurl.com/ya2c3bm
Review the Agenda HERE
Multnomah County Budget Forum, March 18, 6p-8p
Multnomah
County is seeking public feedback on specific policy areas that will
inform the Chair’s executive budget decisions and the Board’s budget
deliberations. The meetings are intended as informal, small group
discussions to gather the community’s priorities, input and questions.
For the tenth time in as many years, Multnomah County again faces
cuts to programs and services in the community. Your ideas and comments
tell county leaders what’s most important to you.
Get the details at www.osbhcn.org/calendar
Do you have news or announcements to share?
SBHC's activities to share in the School Health Bulletin
Paula Hester
Executive Director
503-813-6420
P.O. Box 12191, Portland, OR 97212
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