By Howard Fischer and Carla McClain
CAPITOL MEDIA SERVICES ARIZONA DAILY STAR
PHOENIX - State lawmakers say disruptive students can be counseled, their parents consulted, and students can even be thrown out of school.
But the House voted Wednesday that students can't be barred from class simply because they won't be psychologically evaluated or medicated.
And what's really at issue isn't mentioned in the bill: Ritalin. Rep. Linda Gray, R-Phoenix, said she believes this drug is grossly overprescribed to children with behavioral problems.
Gray, who crafted HB 2007, said she isn't saying that Ritalin can't be helpful, particularly for children with attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD. What concerns her is how frequently schoolteachers, counselors and administrators tell parents that unless their child is on Ritalin, he or she won't be able to attend school.
Not so, Tucson-area school officials say. If such a bill passes, it would change no school policy or practice, they say.
"It would have no effect on us, because it is something we already don't do. We cannot require parents to give medications to their kids," said Lorrane McPherson, regional assistant superintendent for central services for the Tucson Unified School District.
"If we administer medications to students at school, we do it only at parental request and under a doctor's orders. By law, we are obligated to serve kids, and we can't put these kinds of barriers up against doing that. So I don't really know what the purpose of this bill is."
Calling the bill "a waste of time," Todd Jaeger, general counsel for the Amphitheater Public Schools district, said: "I've heard this claim for years - that we require kids to be put on Ritalin - and I am continually perplexed by it. I can certainly tell you that no school district in this state can or does make such a requirement. This is really bizarre."
What can happen, Jaeger said, is that a teacher may recommend that parents have a disruptive child evaluated by a physician if the child is exhibiting ADHD-type symptoms.
"But we never require a parent to do that," he said.
However, schools are required to identify students with learning disabilities and provide special services to such students, he said. So schools can mandate evaluation by the school for that problem.
"But that does not include ADHD. That is a medical diagnosis," Jaeger said.
Opponents of the bill argue that sometimes the only way to ensure that students don't disrupt the rest of the class is to require that they at least be evaluated and possibly medicated.
The legislation requires a roll-call vote before going to the Senate.