EMILY R. UHR, AN INFANT, &C., ET AL., APPELLANTS, v. EAST GREENBUSH CENTRAL
  SCHOOL DISTRICT ET AL., RESPONDENTS.

    94 N.Y.2d 32 (1999).
    October 21, 1999

   3 No. 140

   (99 NY Int. 0138)
   Decided October 21, 1999
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   This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication
   in the New York Reports.
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   Michael W. Kessler, for appellants.
   Leslie B. Neustadt, for respondents.
   New York State School Boards Association, Inc.,
   amicus curiae.

   ROSENBLATT, J.:

   Education Law § 905(1) requires school authorities in the State of
   New York to examine students between eight and sixteen years of age
   for scoliosis at least once in each schoolyear. The principal issue on
   this appeal is whether the statute authorizes a private right of
   action.

   During the 1992-1993 school year, the infant plaintiff was a seventh
   grade student at the Goff Middle School, operated by defendant East
   Greenbush Central School District. In October 1992, as part of a
   school program, a nurse screened her for scoliosis. The results were
   negative. She was examined during the following school year
   (1993-1994) by a school nurse who checked her height, weight and
   vision but allegedly did not screen her for scoliosis. (n.1)

   In March 1995, when the infant plaintiff was a ninth grader during the
   1994-1995 school year at Columbia High School (also operated by the
   East Greenbush Central School District), a school nurse screened her
   for scoliosis and the examination proved positive. Her parents, who
   are also plaintiffs in this action, then had her examined by an
   orthopedic doctor who concluded that her scoliosis had progressed to
   the point that surgery was required instead of the braces that often
   can be utilized when the condition is diagnosed earlier. The infant
   plaintiff underwent surgery in July 1995.