Commission adopts charter resolution exempting County Public Health from routine school sanitary inspections

The County Commission adopted a charter resolution under KSA 65-202a to exempt Lawrence Douglas County Public Health from completing routine sanitary inspections in Douglas County schools.

Lawrence Douglas County Public Health staff told commissioners the resolution aims to avoid what they described as duplicative inspections and free limited environmental health staff to focus on higher-value inspections and complaint response. Health department officials said the exemption does not eliminate the department's obligation to respond to public health or environmental complaints from schools.

Jonathan Smith, director of Lawrence Douglas County Public Health, said the department uses the term "duplicative" to refer to other, more comprehensive assessments of school safety that include mechanisms to compel corrective action, whereas the department's historical school inspections did not carry the same enforcement authority. "There are other inspections that schools participate in that are more robust and comprehensive," Smith said, adding that KDHE (Kansas Department of Health and Environment) has no template for local health departments to use in lieu of the county inspections.

Shelby Ostrom, policy analyst for the health department, said the draft charter resolution was prepared by the Kansas Association of Local Health Departments and that several other Kansas counties, including Johnson and Sedgwick, have already adopted similar exemptions. She said the option to exempt local health departments from school inspections became available again in 2024 after earlier pandemic-era changes.

Smith told commissioners that the department currently has two environmental health staff who spend about 80 hours a month on inspections including swimming pools, septic systems and tobacco retail inspections; he said the department would prefer to reallocate staff time to higher-priority constituent services. He also said the health board approved the draft charter resolution at its August 2024 meeting.

Commission discussion was brief; no public comment was offered on this item during the hearing. Commissioner Reid moved to adopt the charter resolution; a colleague seconded the motion. The commission recorded the vote and moved on.

Why it matters: The change shifts routine sanitary inspection responsibilities away from the county health department to other agencies or existing school inspection regimes, freeing local health department capacity while keeping complaint response authority in place.

Next steps: Staff offered to provide a side-by-side comparison of school inspections conducted by other agencies if commissioners want more detail; the health department said it will continue to respond to complaints and to perform environmental health work such as pool and childcare licensing inspections.