413 - Personnel - Health and Safety

It is the policy of this district to ensure, so far as possible, that every employee has a safe and healthful place in which to work.  It is also the policy of this district to help each employee recognize his/her responsibilities for safe employment, and require that he/she adhere to those responsibilities.

Physical Examinations
Contracted employees will be required to submit to a pre-employment physical examination, after an offer of employment has been made and before the beginning of service.

Contracted employees working in the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program must have a health assessment. Documented health assessments include:

• capabilities and limitations that may affect job performance
• documentation by a licensed health professional of TB skin testing using the Mantoux method and showing the employee to be free from active TB disease. For those who have positive TB skin tests and who develop a persistent cough or unexplained fever, immediate assessment by a licensed physician is required. For those who have increased risk of TB according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), documentation is required annually by a licensed health professional showing that the employee is free from active TB disease.   

The district will provide the standard examination form to be completed by an appropriately licensed health care provider who performs the physical examination.  A written report of the physical examination shall be submitted to the district.  The date by which any such physical examination report shall be submitted to the district shall be determined by the superintendent, but in no case shall be any less than five (5) business days prior to the first working day.

Bus drivers will be examined using all applicable state and federal criteria at the beginning of employment and every two years thereafter.  

Reimbursement to the extent not covered by insurance will be provided to contracted bus drivers, substitute and activity bus drivers, and employees in the Statewide Voluntary Preschool Program for the remaining cost of the required physical examination.

Fitness-for-duty examinations may be required following an absence from work due to illness, if there is a reasonable belief that the employee is unable to perform the essential functions of the job, or if there is a reasonable belief that the employee poses a direct threat to the employee or others because of a health condition.  A direct threat occurs when an individual poses a significant risk of substantial harm to him/herself or others, and the risk cannot be reduced below the direct threat level through reasonable accommodations.

All information regarding the medical condition or history of a contracted employee must be kept in files separate from the employee’s personnel records and treated as a confidential medical record subject to state and federal confidentiality laws.

The cost of the first examination for all full-time contracted employees will be paid by the employee (excluding contracted bus drivers and contracted Voluntary Preschool Program employees). The district shall provide the standard examination form to be completed by a recognized medical professional examiner.

Communicable Diseases
The district recognizes that some employees with a communicable disease, as defined by law, may be able to attend to their customary employment duties without creating a risk of transmission of the illness to the students or other employees.  The district also recognizes that there may be a greater risk of transmission of some communicable diseases for some employees with certain conditions than for other employees infected with the same disease.

Employees with a communicable disease will be allowed to perform their customary duties, provided they are able to perform the essential functions of their position and their presence does not pose a direct threat.  A direct threat occurs when an individual poses a significant risk of substantial harm to him/herself or others, and the risk cannot be reduced below the direct threat level through reasonable accommodations.

Prevention and control of communicable diseases shall be included in the school district’s bloodborne pathogens exposure control plan.  The procedures shall include scope and application, definitions, exposure control, methods of compliance, universal precautions, vaccination, post-exposure evaluation, follow-up, communication of hazards to employees and record keeping.  This plan shall be reviewed annually by the superintendent and school nurse.

The health risk to immunodepressed employees shall be determined by their personal physician.  The health risk to others in the school district environment from the presence of an employee with a communicable disease shall be determined on a case-by-case basis by the employee’s personal physician, a physician chosen by the school district or public health officials.

An employee who is at work and who has a communicable disease that poses a direct threat, as defined above, shall report the condition to the superintendent any time the employee is aware that the employee’s condition poses a direct threat.  Any individual who has information that a district employee may have a communicable disease is encouraged to report the information to the superintendent.

The superintendent shall determine on a case-by-case basis whether the presence of an employee with a communicable disease in the district environment constitutes a direct threat.  In making this determination, the superintendent shall consider credible, objective evidence.  If the superintendent, after reviewing the credible, objective evidence, determines the employee’s presence may constitute a direct threat, the superintendent may request additional medical information from the employee’s physician (with the employee’s consent), a physician chosen by the district or public health officials, to confirm the superintendent’s determination.

All information regarding the medical condition or history of an employee must be kept in files separate from the employee’s personnel records and treated as a confidential medical record subject to state and federal law.

It is the responsibility of the superintendent, in conjunction with the school nurse, to develop administrative regulations stating the procedures for dealing with employees with a communicable disease.

 

 

Date of Adoption/Revision: 
August 1983
September 1992
August 1995
June 1998
June 2001
June 2004
July 2005
May 2006
July 2007
August 2013
December 2016
January 2017
September 2018
November 2018
June 2019