Ward 3 D.C. Councilmember Mary Cheh

The Healthy Schools Act of 2010

The Healthy Schools Act of 2010 became a national model for nutrition and physical activity standards in public and charter schools across the country. The law established Healthy Schools Fund to fund certain programs and requirements under the bill. It also:

• Established local nutritional standards for school meals
• Established healthy vending, fundraising, marketing, and prize requirements in public schools
• Requires public schools to participate in federal meal programs whenever possible,
• Solicits feedback about healthy meals
• Requires public disclosure of ingredients, origin of fruits and vegetables, and the nutritional content of school meals, and to provide at least 30 minutes to eat lunch
• Established a farm-to-school program, to create a preference and a monetary incentive to serve locally grown, unprocessed foods, to require teaching about the benefits of fresh, local foods, to require programs such as a local flavor week and a harvest of the month, and to require an annual report and recommendations on farm-to school initiatives;
• Established minimum levels of physical education and activity for students, to provide for exemptions for students with disabilities, students with other diagnosed health problems, or schools that lack the facilities, to provide schools with equal access to recreation facilities, to prohibit physical education to be used as punishment, to require minimum amounts of health education, and to require an annual report about the compliance with these requirements;
• Established an environmental programs office within the Office of the Public Education Facilities Modernization that would establish comprehensive recycling, energy reduction, and integrated pest management programs, to require District of Columbia Public Schools to use environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, to require an annual report and recommendations on sustainability, to encourage schools to use more sustainable products in their meal service, to create an environmental literacy plan, to establish a school gardens program, to issue grants to support the development of school gardens, to require a report and recommendations about school gardens, and to permit the sale and consumption of food grown in school gardens when safe
• Amended the Green Building Act of 2006 to encourage school construction to achieve LEED Gold certification
• Requires schools to collaborate to adopt local wellness policies and update them triennially, to require the inclusion of sustainability and farm-to-school initiatives in local wellness policies, to require local wellness policies to be promoted and shared, to require information regarding health programs, nutrition programs, physical and health education programs, and wellness policy to be reported to the State Superintendent of Education, to require a plan to establish and operate school health centers by 2015
• Amended the District of Columbia Municipal Regulations to prohibit vehicles from idling near schools
• Implemented the Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools program
• Established the Healthy Youth and Schools Commission, to define its function, to require an annual report and recommendations, to set forth the composition and organization of the commission, to set forth rules of procedure, to provide administrative and technical support, and to provide rulemaking authority

Free Clinic Assistance Program Extension Emergency Amendment Act

To extend the life of the free clinic assistance program until a captive insurance company can to be formed to offer medical liability insurance to free clinics.

Clinical Trials Insurance Coverage Act

To prohibit every health benefits plan offered, issued, or renewed in the District of Columbia from denying payment for coverage of routine patient care cost of a health care service, item, or drug for a qualified individual participating in an approved clinical trial if the service, item, or drug would have been covered had it not been administered in a clinical trial.

AED Installation for Safe Recreation and Exercise Amendment Act

To establish a program to install and maintain automated external defibrillators in Department of Parks and Recreation facilities, to provide training in conjunction with the department’s existing health training for personnel to operate the defibrillators to ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the department’s patrons, and to prepare a study for possible future placement of automated external defibrillators in all public buildings, and to provide immunity from civil liability for the District under this program when a recreation facility possesses a certificate of compliance from the Mayor.

Chemotherapy Pill Coverage Act

To require individual and group health plans and health insurers to provide coverage for prescribed, orally administered chemotherapy medication on a basis no less favorable than coverage offered for intravenously administered or injected cancer medications.

Unused Pharmaceutical Safe Disposal Act

To ensure the safe, effective, and proper disposal of unused pharmaceuticals in the District of Columbia by requiring the Board of Pharmacy to design a public education campaign to educate individuals on the importance of the proper disposal of pharmaceuticals and to make recommendations to the Mayor regarding the development of a pharmaceutical disposal program for consumers, to require health care facilities to dispose of unused pharmaceuticals by means other than flushing, and to require the Mayor to issue rules to govern how health care facilities shall dispose of unused pharmaceuticals.

Food, Environmental, and Economic Development in the District of Columbia Act

To establish a program to attract grocery stores to and renovate grocery stores in Enterprise Zones in the District; to require participating grocery stores to employ District residents, accept SNAP Benefits, and accept WIC benefits; to designate a grocery ambassador to assist grocery retailers; to establish a program to expand access to healthy foods in Enterprise Zones in the District by providing assistance to corner stores; to develop a plan for establishing a commercial distribution system for fresh produce and healthy foods to corner stores; to assist corner stores in becoming more energy efficient; and to establish a rebate program for the installation of energy-efficient commercial refrigeration and freezer systems in the District.

Reasonable Health Insurance Ratemaking and Health Care Reform Act

To establish ratemaking principles and standards as additional guidance in reviewing and approving health insurance rate filings, to set minimum medical loss ratio standards, to require that companies pay a rebate if the annual medical loss ratio is below the minimum standards, to require that all accident and sickness rate filings be made available for public inspection, to amend the Insurance Trade and Economic Development Amendment Act to protect victims of domestic violence from discrimination in the provision of insurance, to prohibit rate variation in health insurance rate-setting based on the gender or sex of an individual, to ban discontinuance of entire classes of health insurance policies as a pretext for dropping an individual policyholder, to require insurers to prove that they are not dropping a class of policies as a pretext for dropping an individual policyholder, to empower consumers by creating a private right of action against insurers that violate the new law, and to ensure that discontinued policyholders with severe illnesses and disabilities have at least 18 months of coverage if their coverage is legitimately discontinued.

Human and Environmental Health Protection Act

To regulate the manufacture and sale of products containing bisphenol-A and polybrominated diphenyl ether, to phase out the use of perchloroethylene in dry cleaning; and to amend the Phosphate Soaps and Detergent Restriction Act of 1985 to reduce the percentage of phosphorus permitted in cleaning agents used for dishwashers from 8.7% by weight to 0.5% by weight.

Blood Donation Expansion Act of 2010

To permit a minor 16 years of age who meets all the health requirements to donate blood with the written consent of a parent or legal guardian, and a minor 17 years of age or more who meets all the health requirements to donate blood without consent of a parent or legal guardian.

Lead Hazard Prevention and Elimination Amendment Act

To amend the Lead Hazard Prevention and Elimination Act of 2008 to create new definitions; to expand protections to pregnant women and children under 6 years of age; to correct technical errors; and to create a private right of action.

Medicaid Provider Fraud Prevention Amendment Act

To make the District’s false claims act consistent with federal law and thereby qualify the District for additional Medicaid recoveries under a federal financial incentive, to expand the liability of individuals and entities that submit false or fraudulent claims to the District, to facilitate qui tam actions for false and fraudulent claims by increasing the rights of qui tam plaintiffs and the reward to which they are entitled, and to authorize the Attorney General for the District of Columbia to promulgate rules to adjust civil penalties for inflation for the purpose of making the District’s false claims law consistent with the federal false claims law.

Healthy Schools Amendment Act

To amend the Healthy Schools Act of 2010 to allow private schools in the National School Lunch Program to have the option of participating in the Health Schools Act program, to clarify the definition of unprocessed foods, the requirements for serving school meals and the applicability of the nutritional requirements, the assessment of health education, and the environmental literacy plan, to expand school health profiles and permit the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to modify them, and to provide that school campuses are tobacco-free.

Water Quality Assurance Amendment Act

To mandate testing for unregulated contaminants in the District’s drinking water, to establish a Water Quality Assurance Advisory Panel to discuss and analyze findings related to emerging and unregulated contaminants in the District’s drinking water and wastewater discharge and recommend to the Mayor and the General Manager of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority an appropriate course of action to improve drinking water quality in the District, and to require a study examining unregulated contaminants in wastewater effluent.

Fresh Healthy Mobile Cart Vending Pilot in Underserved Areas Emergency Amendment Act

To establish a healthy mobile cart vending pilot program in underserved areas, to define healthy food vendor as a vendor who sells only fruits and vegetables, to limit this pilot program to historically underutilized business zones, and to limit this pilot program to 15 permits; and to permit the Mayor to issue rules to implement the provisions of this act.

Pesticide Education and Control Amendment Act

To further restrict the application of pesticides near waterways, at schools, day care centers, and on District property, to establish publicly available courses on pesticides at the University of the District of Columbia, to require an annual report on pesticide usage, to require pesticide applicators to submit usage data, and to increase the pesticide product registration fee; to amend the Pesticides Operations Act of 1977 to increase penalties; and to amend the Human and Environmental Health Protection Act of 2010 to allow the Mayor to issue rules permitting limited exemptions.