Section 909. School hygiene districts

1. The board of supervisors of any
  county, with the approval of the commissioner of education,  shall  have
  power  to establish in such county a school hygiene district which shall
  include the supervisory district or districts in such county, as defined
  in this chapter. The  board  of  education  of  any  union  free  school
  district of four thousand five hundred or more population, which employs
  a  superintendent of schools, or of any city having a population of less
  than fifty thousand, within  such  county,  may  at  any  time  adopt  a
  resolution  requesting  that  such union free school district or city be
  included within such school hygiene district, and after the approval  of
  such  request  by the district committee on school hygiene, herein-below
  mentioned, and by the commissioner of education, and upon the subsequent
  filing by the clerk of such board of education of a  certified  copy  of
  such resolution and of a certified copy of such approvals with the clerk
  of  the  board  of  supervisors, such union free school district or city
  shall be included within such school hygiene district.
    2. When such a school hygiene district is established, as  hereinabove
  provided,  the  board  of  supervisors  shall  appropriate funds for the
  salary and necessary expenses of a district director of school  hygiene.
  Funds  may also be appropriated for assistants to the director of school
  hygiene. Within  thirty  days  after  such  appropriation  is  made  the
  chairman of the board of supervisors shall call a meeting, to be held at
  a  date  as  early  as  practicable, of the district superintendents and
  school superintendents in such school hygiene district together with the
  chairman of the board of supervisors,  at  which  meeting  such  persons
  shall  organize  themselves  into a district committee on school hygiene
  and shall elect a chairman thereof. In any school hygiene district which
  includes part or all of a county health  district,  as  defined  in  the
  public  health  law,  the  district health officer of such county health
  district shall be a member of such committee. The district  director  of
  school  hygiene  and assistants shall be appointed by and work under the
  direction of such district committee on school hygiene. They shall  meet
  the  qualifications  established by the commissioner of education and be
  certificated as supervisors of teachers. Any person  appointed  as  such
  district  director  of school hygiene shall be a physician duly licensed
  and registered to practice in this state and shall have practiced  as  a
  physician,  or  been  engaged  in  public  health work, for at least two
  years.
    3. It shall be the duty of the district director of school hygiene  to
  advise,   assist,   and   exercise  general  supervision  over,  medical
  inspectors, dentists and school nurses in the  public  schools  in  such
  school  hygiene  district; to keep informed as to their work and require
  such reports from them as he may deem necessary; to  see  that  suitable
  recommendations based on the findings of the medical inspectors in their
  examinations  of  pupils  are brought to the attention of their teachers
  and of those in parental relation to  such  pupils;  to  aid,  and  keep
  informed  as  to  the  work  of, oral hygienists, nutrition workers, and
  other school employees engaged  in  health  work  in  such  schools;  to
  inspect,   and  report  to  the  proper  authorities  on,  the  sanitary
  conditions of school  buildings,  and  in  other  ways  to  promote  the
  physical  welfare  and health education of pupils. Whenever the board of
  supervisors, or, in a county constituting, in whole or in part, a county
  health district, the district health officer thereof, shall,  under  any
  provisions  of  law now in force or hereafter enacted, assign any public
  health nurse to the duties of a school nurse in any  school  or  schools
  within  a  school  hygiene district, she may be assigned to perform such
  duties under the direct control  of  the  district  director  of  school
  hygiene  of  such  school  hygiene  district.  Such district director of

  school hygiene shall be subject to  supervision  by  the  state  medical
  inspector of schools.
    4. If it be ascertained upon any test or examination held by a medical
  inspector  under  the  provisions  of  section nine hundred four of this
  article in any of the school districts within a school hygiene  district
  that  any of the pupils are afflicted with defective sight or hearing or
  other physical disability and the parents have been duly notified as  to
  the  existence of such defects and physical disability and are unable to
  provide the necessary relief and treatment for such pupils and such fact
  is reported by said medical inspector to the district director of school
  hygiene, such district director shall have power and  it  shall  be  his
  duty  to  provide  relief for such pupils within the amount appropriated
  for such purpose by the board of supervisors.
    5. The board of supervisors,  after  determining  the  amount  of  the
  appropriation  necessary  for  the  salary and expenses of such district
  director of school hygiene and assistants, shall levy one-half  of  such
  amount  by  tax on the towns, union free school districts and cities, if
  any, included within such school hygiene district, and  shall  apportion
  such  amount,  so  levied, among such towns, union free school districts
  and cities, according to the assessed valuation of the taxable  property
  therein.   Whenever   a   board   of  supervisors  shall  make  such  an
  appropriation and levy such a tax, the commissioner of  education  shall
  apportion  to  each  such  town, union free school district and city, an
  amount equal to that so levied upon each  such  respective  town,  union
  free  school  district or city. The board of supervisors shall likewise,
  after determining the amount of the appropriation necessary for expenses
  incurred for the  relief  of  pupils  under  subdivision  four  of  this
  section,  levy the total amount by tax upon the towns, union free school
  districts and cities,  if  any,  included  within  such  school  hygiene
  district,  and  shall  apportion such amount so levied among such towns,
  union free  school  districts  and  cities  according  to  the  assessed
  valuation  of  the taxable property therein. The sums collected from the
  taxes so levied, and the  amount  apportioned  by  the  commissioner  of
  education,  shall  be  paid  to the county treasurer of such county, who
  shall expend such moneys for the purposes hereinabove  provided  and  in
  the same manner as other county charges are paid.