NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A10773A
SPONSOR: Rules (Lifton)
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the public health law, in relation to giving schools
improved access to the statewide immunization database
 
PURPOSE:
To add schools to the list of entities permitted to access the Statewide
Immunization Registry. For efficiency purposes.
 
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
Sec. 1) modifies subparagraph (i) of paragraph (d) of subdivision 8 of
section 2168 of the public health law to require the department of
health to make available to every school, via batch downloading, the
immunization records for their own students
Sec. 2) states the effective date.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Currently, schools that are not school based health-centers are only
allowed read-only access to immunization information in the NYSIIS.
This means that, in order to update immunization records for a school's
students, the school nurse must manually download each student's immuni-
zation information, one at a time, from the state system. Each record
must then be re-typed into the schools' own database. This consumes
valuable, expert staff time and increases the chances of data entry
error. If schools were expressly permitted to download sets of immuniza-
tion records directly from the statewide system, this would save hours
of staff time and free vital members of our school communities to work
directly with students rather than complete data entry. It would also
reduce the likelihood of clerical errors.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:;
New bill.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
10773--A
IN ASSEMBLY
July 9, 2020
___________
Introduced by COMMITTEE ON RULES -- (at request of M. of A. Lifton) --
read once and referred to the Committee on Health -- committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
AN ACT to amend the public health law, in relation to giving schools
improved access to the statewide immunization database
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subparagraph (i) of paragraph (d) of subdivision 8 of
2 section 2168 of the public health law, as amended by section 7 of part
3 MM of chapter 57 of the laws of 2018, is amended to read as follows:
4 (i) schools for the purpose of verifying immunization status for
5 eligibility for admission, for the purpose of confirming a student has
6 been screened for lead when enrolling in child care, pre-school or
7 kindergarten, and for the provision of appropriate educational materials
8 developed by the department pursuant to section thirteen hundred seven-
9 ty-a of this chapter on the dangers of lead exposure, and the health
10 risks associated with elevated blood lead levels to the parents or legal
11 guardians of the student with an elevated blood lead level, as such term
12 is defined in subdivision six of section thirteen hundred seventy of
13 this chapter, as well as information on programs that may be available
14 to the student and the parents or legal guardians of the student,
15 provided that, for every school that has applied for and been granted
16 access to identifiable registrant information pursuant to this subdivi-
17 sion, the department shall make available the capability to batch down-
18 load sets of immunization records of only those children under their
19 administrative responsibility;
20 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD16638-02-0