Can Schools Legally Weigh You

A proposal by Deakin University to measure the height and weight of all Australian schoolchildren has naturally sparked controversy. Some commentators have called it wrong because they fear it will encourage children to «gain weight loss at all costs.» Good sadness, how about schools that stick to academic teaching and music/art. Isn`t that enough for them to deal with it? The Arkansas review found that after the introduction of the measurement program, children were no longer likely to be teased about their weight or diet, or to have more concerns about body image. Some people believe that obesity is not a disease, that children can be healthy at any weight, and that we should focus on behaviors such as a healthy diet and physical activity, not obesity. The foundations of my decades-long eating disorder were laid before I was 7 or 8 years old. I made so much noise during my school doctor`s appointments because I didn`t want to be weighed. I felt like the number would be high compared to my friends. I was embarrassed. So much so that a vision problem has been overlooked and my right eye is now almost blind. While there are pros and cons to measuring children`s height and weight at school, the pros outweigh the cons. […] with her. Give them the means to respond politely but confidently to these people. Allow her to withdraw from school cribs and medical cribs if she […] […] Read more: Opt-out of weight programs […] Recently, I learned that the school`s (public) teachers have set up middle school students to weigh as part of their «fitness» assessments they do each spring.

(Boys in the boys` locker room, girls in the girls` locker room.) Your body fat and BMI are also analyzed. The results are communicated to them in front of the other students. There is no attempt at previance. While my DD isn`t ashamed of his weight, that`s not true for most of his peers. I would have been ashamed to experience this as a teenager. «We shouldn`t assume that children of higher weight are less healthy. It`s the stigma of weight, which can increase the risk of eating disorders,» says dietitian and exercise physiologist Rebecca Scritchfield, RD, author of Body Kindness. In addition, she adds, some children naturally tend to be higher on the growth curve, which is normal for them.

Well, I think most schools are screening for BMI now. Ours does, but it is shared privately with parents. It would also have triggered my heckling! This may not be information protected under HIPPA, but it should certainly be treated with more sensitivity. Good luck! And parents should be kept informed. Dr. Muth says parents should know in advance that weights are being taken as they are made and, ideally, have a chance to withdraw. Dr. Pavlovic also says parents can request that their student be deregistered from the weight component of FitnessGram by sending a note to the school. The CDC recommends 10 safety precautions to follow for BMI screening in schools. However, a 2019 study estimates that only 3% of schools used the top 4 safeguards and 56% of schools had no or only safety monitoring.³ Most teachers had no idea of the existence of these safety precautions. If safety precautions are not taken, children are left unprotected.

Students report again and again that they are weighed in front of their classmates – with announced weights. The guidelines provide specific protections for parents and students who are systematically ignored. The program was relaunched in a handful of schools late last year, with a full return expected in January. The school tries to use public humiliation to motivate overweight students to lose weight. This is a very bad idea, because shame is not actually an effective motivational tool. I don`t know if this practice violates hipaa or not, but it`s certainly bad school policy. There is no good reason why the student`s weight and BMI cannot simply be written down and passed on to the student. What is there to gain by weighing children? Does this advantage outweigh the risk of alerting a generation of young people to the irrelevant number that will appear on the scales? Further fuel the pandemic of eating disorders? There was an article in the newspaper this weekend – or maybe it was last week`s newspaper (I`m a bit behind in my reading) about schools doing BMI checks. I fully agree that this should remain private. However, I see nothing wrong with a fundamental examination. What worries me is that the emphasis is on being thin and that children – boys and girls – start the diet when they don`t need it. One of the reasons schools are looking at this issue is that they are putting more emphasis on healthy eating.

Instead of health education focusing on the body and organs, etc., more is taught about how food nourishes the body and everything works together and blood circulation, etc. I know that if my daughters were told their BMI and weight in front of everyone and displayed them (why should it be necessary???), they would be very upset. And I think one of my daughters would be fiercely determined to improve it, maybe in a bad way, because now she sometimes compares herself to others. Overall, this is not a bad thing, but poorly represented, it could be catastrophic. Maureen H. mentions that schools can start using BMI to determine grades, that`s so wrong! I have known brilliant people who are overweight, it would be a terrible mistake to judge their intellect by their weight. Even before the pandemic, the UK had some of the highest rates of overweight children in Western Europe. About one in three children leaving primary school in England was overweight, and one in five was classified as obese. Fry called on ministers to respond to the Covid crisis by increasing the frequency of weighing to once a year. Cdc Guarantee 1 for BMI measurements in schools states that parents must be given a clear description of the weighing program for students at their child`s school.

Parents should have the option to refuse permission to measure their child`s BMI. Some programs use passive parental consent; That is, all students have their BMI measured unless parents send a written rejection. Here is a written rejection letter that you can give to your child`s school. If your student is over 18, they can sign the letter themselves. While HIPPA does not apply to schools, as others have pointed out, there is a law known as FERPA that does. FERPA enforces privacy regulations to public educational institutions – I would check this and then contact the school. www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html Why are weight and BMI included on a certificate? This is NOT a class or education issue. Discussing weight and BMI before class is wrong in my book. Under the current regime, schoolchildren are weighed only twice in primary school. It`s absolutely not cool to punish a girl for wanting to keep her physical values to herself. But that`s exactly what happened to Ireland Hobach Hoch, 13, a student at Polk`s southeast high school who refused to be weighed publicly in front of her P.E.class. It was therefore sent to the Director`s office.

Regular population-level opt-out surveys on children`s height and weight allow us to present historical trends, geographic distributions and, if measurements can be linked to anonymized personal data, associations with socioeconomic status, environment and health outcomes. «Measuring BMI at school can bring some benefits, as long as the measurements are done privately and sensitively and without judgment,» says Dr. Muth. «If it`s not done with the utmost care, the downside outweighs any benefit and it`s potentially harmful and stigmatizing.» The CDC says that weighing students shouldn`t be done within sight or ear of other students (in other words, the opposite of what I experienced as a student!). Hello, my name is (name) and I am a student/parent (class) at (school) in (city). I call/write to discuss student body mass index screenings in schools and why I am against this practice. In accordance with state laws/regulations, my school/my child`s school conducts BMI screenings of students. I believe this is an ineffective and harmful practice. If they «reserve» the weights, then you can get a point.

If they discuss it individually, but with others nearby, there is no violation. The National Child Measurement Program (NCMP) measures the height and weight of children in the foster class (ages 4-5) and Grade 6 (ages 10-11) to assess overweight and obesity in primary school children. It needs to be reintroduced due to fears that the Covid pandemic has triggered a childhood obesity crisis. Weighing students in school can be beneficial in helping children embark on a healthier path, but it needs to be done right. This means moving away from other students and without stigma of weight.