Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGO 1990 NO. 1 >

1.  RCW 28A.05.055 requires school districts to provide education on acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) at least once during each school year beginning with the 1988-89 school year.2.  If a school district elects to develop its own AIDS curricula, it need not complete the curricula prior to the beginning of the school year, so long as it is developed in time to provide AIDS education at least once during the school year.

AGO 1995 NO. 1 >

Neither the Department of Agriculture nor the Department of Health has authority to administratively designate a "food control area" (such as the area surrounding the site of a chemical or nuclear accident) and embargo all food grown within the area without some particularized determination of the products which are contaminated or are likely to pose a threat to human health.

AGO 2012 NO. 2 >

The Department of Health is precluded by statute from inspecting occupied rooms when conducting inspections of transient accommodations, without regard to presence or consent of the occupant.

AGO 2013 NO. 3 >

 

A public hospital district that provides, directly or by contract, maternity care benefits, services, or information to women, through any program administered or funded in whole or in part by the district, must also provide the substantially equivalent benefits, services, or information required by RCW 9.02.160 and .100.

AGO 1972 NO. 5 >

(1) RCW 28A.58.420, as amended by § 2, chapter 269, Laws of 1971, 1st Ex. Sess., permits but does not require all school districts to make available to their employees an insurance program which would include medical or health care coverage entitling the beneficiaries to utilize the services of those practitioners who are licensed pursuant to chapters 18.22, 18.25, 18.53, 18.57 and 18.71 RCW.(2) If an insurance contract procured by a school district for its employees under RCW 28A.58.420, as amended, does include medical coverage relating to services which can be rendered by more than one of the above enumerated classes of licensees, the contract must then entitle the beneficiaries to choose between the services of each of those categories of licensees which are authorized to treat the particular covered illness or injury in question.(3) Where the board of directors of a school district is providing medical or health care insurance coverage for its employees under RCW 28A.58.420, as amended, it is not necessary that the contract for insurance or protection allow its beneficiaries to utilize the services of any practitioners in this state licensed pursuant to the enumerated RCW chapters; instead, it is permissible for the insurance contract to afford to those beneficiaries only the services of a designated list of named licensees practicing in a particular geographical area.

AGO 2008 NO. 5 >

1.  A county health board may lawfully order the fluoridation of a water supply system owned and operated by a public utility district and located within the county’s jurisdiction.  2.  Subject to constitutional requirements, a county health board may lawfully order a public utility district to fluoridate a discrete portion of the PUD’s water supply system.  3.  A county health board may enact a regulation requiring the fluoridation of water supply systems generally but, subject to constitutional requirements, a generally applicable regulation is not prerequisite to the issuance of enforcement orders on the subject.  4.  A county health board may lawfully order the fluoridation of a water supply system where the order is contingent upon a third-party source of funding for the fluoridation process.

AGO 1979 NO. 6 >

Certain proposed legislation now pending before the state legislature (see Senate Bill No. 2241 and House Bill No. 502) to require specified immunizations of school age children as a prerequisite for admission to public or private schools would, if enacted as drafted, be constitutionally valid.

AGO 1993 NO. 6 >

1.  Chapter 70.105 RCW requires local governments to adopt hazardous waste plans for the management of moderate-risk waste.  A local government can implement such plans through its board of health. 2.  A local health board can assess a fee against a sewer district for services the board performs in connection with the implementation of a local hazardous waste plan.  However, the fee must be no greater than the actual cost of providing the relevant services. 3.  The authority granted to the Department of Ecology to regulate hazardous waste does not preempt the authority of a local health board to adopt a local hazardous waste plan for the management of moderate-risk waste and to charge a fee in connection with the implementation of the plan.

AGLO 1980 NO. 7 >

Funds appropriated by §§ 14 and 15 of chapter 118, Laws of 1979, 1st Ex. Sess., for administration of the mandatory school immunization program thereby established may not be disbursed to private, church-related schools (a) because of a lack of statutory authority and (b) because of the constitutional prohibitions in Article IX, § 4 and Article VIII, § 7 of the Washington Constitution; the legislature, however, could make certain suggested amendments to the law which, if enacted, would establish a constitutionally permissible contractual basis for such payments.

AGLO 1982 NO. 9 >

A health care service contractor registered under chapter 48.44 RCW may offer to provide or to pay reimbursement for the services of a licensed dispensing optician.