Andrea Bickford

To Whom it May Concern, I am a physician and a mother of elementary school aged children in NH. I am speaking on behalf of myself and my words do not represent my employer. I am in staunch opposition to this bill. Firstly it is ludicrous to propose a bill to ban something that isn’t happening to begin with. No one at any elementary, middle or high school in NH nor the US at large is performing diagnostic testing, nor procedures, nor prescribing medications and to suggest otherwise is misleading and disingenuous. To some extent this is semantics, but it speaks to how uninformed policymakers are when it comes to healthcare and healthcare delivery. “Diagnostics” is a term used to describe testing undertaken to investigate the cause of particular symptoms (ex: a urine test to look for a UTI in someone with pain on urination), this cannot legally be done by anyone without a license to practice medicine in some capacity (ex: a physician or advanced care provider, or a nurse operating under direct orders from a physician or ACP), thus if school personnel were to be performing diagnostic testing this would be considered practicing medicine without a license which is against the law. The same is true of procedures and prescribing medication. There is a different term, which I believe the uninformed lawmakers proposing this bill must’ve had in mind, which is “screening” which is a term used to describe testing undertaken to detect serious medical conditions prior to the onset of any symptoms. Conditions which could be life threatening if not detected, or for which we hope to intervene early in the disease process so as to prevent further progression. Such screenings are already, thankfully, undertaken in schools - hearing and vision screenings among them. These can detect issues which may significantly hamper a student’s ability to learn and to participate fully in a school environment but which are correctable in large part, particularly when addressed early. My own poor vision was detected in this way during a routine vision screening when I was in the 3rd grade at Kimball Elementary (now Christa McAuliffe Elementary) in Concord and likely would have continued to go undetected until it progressed more in later years, during which interval of time I may have missed or misunderstood classroom instruction. No procedures are being undertaken currently, especially not in the sense in which the GOP is hoping for us to believe (gender “reassignment surgery” - which is not even the correct or medically accepted terminology I might add - or hormone therapy). Lastly, no medications are being prescribed in any schools. Schools can dispense bandaids, OTC medications such as Tylenol, and cough drops, etc with the permission of parents which is sought each school year and a waiver kept on file. Schools can also administer a child’s prescription medication (as in prescribed by their PCP, and dispensed by a pharmacy) with a note from the child’s doctor. These medications are vital to students’ performance in school (ex ADD/ ADHD medications) and quite literally life saving (ex inhalers for asthma and EpiPens for anaphylaxis). So many of these bills I have seen proposed in the last several weeks are so outlandish and quite frankly a tremendous waste of time. The politicians proposing them should be ashamed of what they’re spending their time (paid for by constituents and tax payers) proposing and discussing. There is so much that actually NEEDS desperately to be accomplished and these sorts of nonsense bills are detrimental to this. I sincerely hope that no one proposing these sorts of bills is reelected so that actual, meaningful, necessary progress can be made for the Granite State