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By Todd Zwillich

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) May 07 - Lawmakers said on Tuesday that they would move forward with a bill to prevent school personnel from requiring students with certain behavior problems to take medications as a precondition for attending classes.

Members of House Education and Workforce Committee said that they would take up a measure intended to end coercion of parents with children who have attention deficit disorder and related problems.

Some parents have claimed that school personnel threatened to remove their child from class unless the child began taking behavior-modifying stimulant drugs like Ritalin (methylphenidate).

The bill, called the Child Medication Safety Act, requires states to enact policies prohibiting the practice as a condition of receiving federal education dollars.

The House passed a more limited version of the bill last week as part of a special education authorization bill. Lawmakers said Tuesday that they would soon push a broader version of the bill to apply to all public schools.

Rep. Michael N. Castle, R-Del., an Education subcommittee chair, said that Ritalin and related stimulants like Adderall often help control disruptive behavior in children with attention deficit problems.

"Parents, however, should never be forced to decide between getting their child into school and keeping their child off of potentially harmful drugs. Schools should never presume to know the medication needs of a child," he said.

Several states, including Connecticut, Minnesota, Illinois, and Virginia, have already passed laws barring schools from demanding that children take anti-hyperactivity medications to attend class.

Several parents alleging coercive treatment at the hands of school personnel have testified before Congress in the last year.

"Parents are losing their right to choose," said Katherine Bryson, a Republican State Representative from Utah.

But one witness testifying at a subcommittee hearing cautioned that the bill was unnecessary and could stifle teachers, who often are the first to identify potential mental problems in children.

Psychiatrist Dr. Lance Clawson told the committee that reports of schools unduly influencing parents are anecdotal. "There's not reliable evidence that such practices regularly occur or that this is a pervasive problem," he said.

"Once we start sanctioning schools from bringing up their concerns, we could be creating further barriers" to mental health treatment for children, added Dr. Clawson, who testified on behalf of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

The Senate has not yet acted on either version of the bill.

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