School leaders are reminded that annually, beginning Dec. 31, all districts are required to submit reports to their county offices of education regarding oral health assessments of students.

Passed in 2006, Assembly Bill 1433, Emmerson, R-Redlands, requires oral health assessments for all kindergarten and first-grade children entering public school for the first time. Schools and districts are required to collect this data by May 31 of each year and forward it to their county offices of education no later than Dec. 31.

To help districts meet the requirements of the new law, ACSA, the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, and the California Dental Association, are providing an automated system to assist school districts in meeting the data collection and reporting requirements.

School districts should contact their county superintendent to find out if their county is participating. There are two levels of participation in this online system. To use the system to generate the forms, and collect the individual student data, and then have that rolled up from the school level to the district level, there is a fee of 40 cents per CBEDS kindergarten enrollment. The system can also be used to simply report aggregate data to the county, which is free of charge.

The System for California Oral Health Reporting – automated AB 1433 data entry system – is accessible at www.AB1433.org. SCOHR is administrated by the San Joaquin County Office of Education and is available statewide for any county office or school district to use. Additional information is available at the Web site, or contact ACSA Management Services Executive Brett McFadden at bmcfadden@acsa.org or (800) 444-3216.