Crescent-News.com - Searching for safety hazards in area schools

By JARED ORZOLEK

orzolek@crescent-news.com

Area health departments have begun inspecting school grounds for potential safety hazards as they enforce a new Ohio law.

House Bill 203, commonly known as "Jarod's Law," is named after a 6-year-old Ohio boy who died in 2003 when a folding cafeteria table fell on him. It dictates that local health departments inspect schools for safety one time per year. The legislation also created a School Health and Safety Network.

In Henry County, Jon Lindsay, county health department director of environmental health, said his staff has already initiated inspections at several county schools.

"It's new for schools and new for our program. It's a learning process for both schools and the health department," Lindsay said. "There are a whole set of rules which cover anything in the buildings and grounds."

The law mandating the inspections was passed in 2006, but the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) did not finalize inspection procedures until September.

The law stipulates that health departments inspect each public and nonpublic school as least once per year and identify conditions dangerous to students, teachers or faculty inside buildings and on school grounds.

Areas to be inspected include everything from the storage of cleaning supplies to the condition of the school's roof to the thickness of mulch surrounding playground equipment.

"This is very much an educational-type of program," Lindsay said, adding that local schools have the safety of students at heart.

The Defiance County Health Department is also working to complete the school inspections, according to director of environmental health Kent Martz.

"We really aren't finding anything major. Most of the issues are with the additional paperwork the schools must have," Martz said, adding that more than half of the county schools have been examined.

Martz said inspections can take three hours for smaller schools to four or more hours for large schools.

Inspectors, who must be registered sanitarians, use forms developed by ODH as they inspect the schools during regular school hours.

Completed inspection forms, which are public record documents, are submitted to the principal or chief administrator of the building, maintenance supervisor, superintendent, board of education and the auditor of state.

The board of education from each school district must then develop a written plan to correct any hazards found in the report, which will include a time schedule for the repair.

Area health officials also said the new law is an unfunded mandate handed down to local health departments as no additional funding was connected to the legislation.

Schools across Ohio have been preparing for the inspections for several months.

Holgate Local Schools superintendent James Reiter said the inspection at his school is slated for mid-May and indicated Holgate's newly constructed building should be in compliance with health codes.

Reiter said the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was previously in charge of inspecting schools for safety and indicated inspections should be done more frequently now that the health department is in charge.