Student BMI Results No Longer Sent to Braintree Parents

Changes approved by the Braintree School Committee Monday night mean that student privacy will be even more stringent during height and weight measurements and that parents will not automatically receive a mailed report about their child's Body Mass Index (BMI).

The mandatory mailing of BMI results to the parents/guardians of all Massachusetts public school students began during the 2009-2010 academic year and was widely criticized by parents and students in the news media.

In Braintree, however, school officials received very little positive or negative feedback about the requirement, Nursing Coordinator Paula Dowd said. Instead, the larger issue for Braintree Public Schools has been the lack of funding attached to the measure and the hours it has taken school nurses to carefully mail out individual letters.

Each of the past three years, Braintree has paid between $750 and $800 for the mailings, Dowd said. "That money can be put to better use somewhere else."

Now parents can ask for a confidential mailing or other communication about their child's results through a written letter to the school nurse. Furthermore, school staff will not disclose the height, weight or BMI of a student verbally or in writing to anyone other than the parent or student without permission from the parent.

Committee member David Ringius Jr. said the original BMI regulation about mailing results "got a bad rap" when it came out, but that the idea of keeping families informed about their children's health remains important.

Students in Braintree are screened in grades 1, 4, 7 and 10 by trained physical education teachers. Those teachers then pass the results directly to school nurses. The data is also sent to the state, but in aggregate form, representing a picture of the district but not individual results.

"BMI is a fairly reliable indicator of body fatness for most people," according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "BMI does not measure body fat directly, but research has shown that BMI correlates to direct measures of body fat..."

The changes, issued by the state Department of Public Health last month, also provide for more confidential screenings. Whereas before the regulations said that staff should take "consideration for the privacy of the student," now "every effort will be made to protect the privacy of the student during the screening process."

"I love the fact that they don't say [the results] out loud anymore," School Committee Chair Shannon Hume said.

Parents can also opt their student out of the screening process altogether.

Regardless of the changes, parents will remain informed about their child's health, Dowd said. Throughout their school years, students are required to take physical exams with their physicians. Nursing staff also contacts parents individually if their child falls too far on one side of the BMI spectrum.