I am currently on a blog vacation. I am less than happy I am writing at this moment and even less happy about the topic.

My moles inside the General Assembly tell me that HB 13, which contains the infamously invasive health assessment form, has not been put on the Senate Education Committee calendar for tomorrow. This, despite it moving smoothly through the Health Committee earlier today.

The Senate committees are winding down this week. If HB 13 is not heard now, we get stuck with this craptastic, privacy violating health assessment form for another year!

My moles also tell me that DPI complained to Senator Soucek, who chairs the Senate Education Committee.

Apparently those complaints were vague as to why they didn’t want HB 13 heard.  Maybe DPI Dan would like to elaborate?

No need. It’s pretty simple why DPI is complaining: they’re milking it for federal dollars.

Torbett’s changes to the bill have curbed some of the invasive nature of the original health assessment form. Without HB 13 being heard tomorrow, the OLD form will stay in place.

For those who haven’t seen it yet, here you go… oh wait, DHHS REMOVED IT. So here you go. One of the questions on it is ‘are your child’s genitals normal‘?

Also, parents should pay attention to the signature panel at the top of it. By signing it, parents are being asked to sign over their child’s medical and developmental history to DPI and DHHS.

Have fun with that form and hit Senator Soucek with it too.

UPDATE (7/22/15)
Civitas has linked to me here:  “Bill Seeks to Rein In Educational Bureaucracy“.
Read the whole thing, but especially the bit under “Bureaucracy Unleashed”. The author does a very good job laying out the serious issues with the health assessment form.

UPDATE #2 (7/22/15): HB 13 is now on the calendar for Thursday, July 23rd. Thank you to the Senate Ed Committee and Senator Soucek!

RELATED:

• Invasive Health Assessment Bill To Be Heard By Committee May 12
• Student ‘Health Assessment’ Helps ‘Track the Fat Kids’. Bonus: US is a Democracy?
• Invasive Student Health Assessment Bill Already In #NCGA Senate
• #NCGA Revising ‘School Health Assessments’