Mandatory dental examination of school-age children in Kindergarten, 2nd and 6th grades in Illinois: Process and Results of 2005-06 school year

As mandated by Section 27-8.1 of the school code, all children in kindergarten, second and sixth grades are required to have an oral health examination by May 15th of each year in compliance with the rules adopted by the Illinois Department of Public Health. In addition, school code requires all school districts to submit completed surveys to the Illinois State Board of Education summarizing dental compliance by June 30th each year. In the 2005-06 school year, the dental compliance level of all students in all reported schools was 80.3%. The compliance level of public schools was 78.8% and of non-public schools was 90.6%. A statewide total of 78,732 reported students (19.7%) of the total reported students were in noncompliance with dental examinations. The compliance level of Kindergarten was 85.3%, 2nd grade was 81.5% and 6th grade was 74.2%. Compliance levels obtained for nonpublic schools were much higher than those for public schools by overall measure as well as by grade levels. Collecting mandatory school dental examination data statewide is a viable method for assessing disease burden and access issues around oral health among children and strengthens the oral health surveillance system by providing an ongoing system of data collection and provides trends over time.