Wyoming House adopts amendments to protect school nurses as it passes parental rights bill

Rep. Landon Brown, R-Cheyenne, who sits on the House Education Committee, told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle that two of his successfully adopted amendments helped relieve some of that concern. The first amendment created an opt-out option for federally regulated health screenings performed in schools: audiology, vision tests, scoliosis tests and body mass index assessments. The second amendment inserted the word “routine” into the bill’s language.

“If the kid comes in with a Band-Aid or a broken nose, or a broken arm or something like that… the nurse would be able to take care of that,” Brown told the WTE.

He added that school nurses “are still trepidatious about what this means in practice,” but he doesn’t think there is anything in the bill that would “give them major heartburn” over losing their license.

An amendment that was proposed in the Senate Education Committee by Sen. Bo Biteman, R-Ranchester, and adopted by the chamber created an opt-in process for all health care services offered by a school, and Brown confirmed that Biteman’s amendment was still alive in the bill.

With this opt-in policy, schools will have to create a comprehensive list of all health care-related services and treatments provided by school nurses — each of which the parent will have to give consent to.

“They’re gonna have to create what ‘routine’ looks like in each school. … They’ve never had to do that before,” Brown told the WTE, adding that school nurses aren’t even sure what a list of “routine services” would look like.

Parents will also have to take the list home and study it thoroughly, making sure they understand the terminology on that list and what they’re giving consent to.

Outside of clearing up language that wouldn’t “scare off” nurses, Brown said the final product didn’t achieve anything that wasn’t already available to parents.

“All we really did was codify what the Supreme Court has already said,” Brown told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. “I don’t think the bill does a ton more than what we have already known as precedents from the Supreme Court.”

At the same time, Brown said parents can be reassured that their right to be involved in their child’s education is codified in state statute. The one significant amendment to the bill that day, Brown said, was brought by Rep. Sarah Penn, R-Lander.

Penn’s adopted amendment requires a teacher to receive “written or electronic permission from each student’s parent or legal guardian not less than one (1) day prior to the student participating or receiving instruction in any trainings, courses or classes that address sexual orientation or gender identity.”

In her introduction of the amendment, Penn said the intent of the bill was to address parents’ concerns regarding certain subjects their children are being taught at school.

“Parents need to be involved in anything that may be coming up if a teacher is planning on teaching this content,” Penn said.

Rep. Dan Zwonitzer, R-Cheyenne, noted that if this amendment were to alert parents of any discussions around sexual orientations and gender identity, heterosexuality is technically an orientation and would fall under that category.

“When people use the term ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity,’ they’re thinking of a certain ideology in their mind,” Zwonitzer said. “Being heterosexual, isn’t that a sexual orientation?”

He added that his only concern was the amendment wouldn’t put anything in the school system that is “unworkable,” since talks of parenting or marriage would fall under that category.

A fourth and final amendment adopted by the House included “educational health” in the list of health changes the school should notify parents of. Rep. Scott Heiner, R-Green River, introduced the amendment, saying it was important parents are alerted by the school if there is a significant change in their child’s academics.

“This is one of the early warning signs that parents need to be aware of — that there may be underlying issues to resolve,” Heiner said.

Brown, who has been on the Legislature’s Joint Education Committee for nearly a decade, said he had never heard of the term “educational health” before and wasn’t sure what it meant. He was worried about putting the terminology into statute without a clear definition.

“If I can get maybe a definition that’s out there … something a little bit more concrete, I would feel a lot more comfortable,” Brown said.

The bill passed the House with a vote of 55 to 7, and it will now return to the Senate, its chamber of origin, for a vote on the House amendments.

A previous version of the story incorrectly stated Rep. Brown is chair of the House Education Committee–he is not the chairman of the committee, as that would be Rep. David Northrup, R-Powell.