TRENDS

Abstract

ON MARCH 8 and 9, hearings on the School Health Services Bill (S. 1290) were held before the sub-committee on health of the Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare. Those who testified on this legislation appeared in the following order: Senator Leverett Saltonstall, sponsor of the bill; Mr. Oscar R. Ewing, Federal Security Administrator; Dr. Martha Eliot, Associate Chief of the U. S. Children's Bureau; Dr. Reginald Atwater, Executive Secretary of the American Public Health Association; Dr. James R. Miller, Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association; Dr. Vlado A. Getting, speaking as President of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers; Dr. John P. Hubbard, speaking as Director of the Study of Child Health Services; and Mr. Clyde A. Erwin, National Council of Chief State School Officers.

When this legislation was reviewed in this column in the February issue of Pediatrics, attention was called to the fact that two controversial points would undoubtedly receive attention in hearings before the Senate Committee. These two points are: (1) division of responsibility between health and educational authorities and (2) the inclusion in the bill of two words "and treatment" which provide for medical services related to the correction of defects discovered during the course of school examinations.

Controversy over the division of responsibility between health and education authorities failed to reach solution prior to the date of these hearings. Educational authorities maintained that a bill related to school programs should give greater recognition to educational agencies. Public health authorities, on the other hand, protested that since this was proposed as a health measure, it should be administered primarily by official health agencies. Mr. Ewing, whose agency includes the Office of Education as well as the U. S. Public Health Service and the U. S. Children's Bureau, introduced amendments to S. 1290, the results of which were to place much more emphasis on health education and physical education than the sponsor intended.