§ 902. Employment of health professionals. 1. As used in this article "health professionals" means persons duly licensed or otherwise authorized to practice a health profession pursuant to applicable law, including, but not limited to, physicians, registered professional nurses, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, optometrists, dentists, dental hygienists, dietitians and nutritionists, and audiologists.

2. a. The board of education, and the trustee or board of trustees of each school district, shall employ, at a compensation to be agreed upon by the parties, a qualified physician, or a nurse practitioner to the extent authorized by the nurse practice act and consistent with subdivision three of section six thousand nine hundred two of this chapter, to perform the duties of the director of school health services, including any duties conferred on the school physician or school medical inspector under any provision of law, to perform and coordinate the provision of health services in the public schools and to provide health appraisals of students attending the public schools in the city or district. The physicians or nurse practitioners so employed shall be duly licensed pursuant to applicable law.

b. Any such board or trustees may employ one or more school nurses, who shall be registered professional nurses, as well as other health professionals, as may be required. Such registered professional nurses and other health professionals shall aid the director of school health services of the district and shall perform such duties, including health instruction for the benefit of the public schools as may be prescribed by such board or trustees, in compliance with each such health professional's practice act.

3. Health professionals may be employed by the trustees or boards of education of two or more school districts, and the compensation of such health professionals, and the expenses incurred in providing school health services for students as provided in this article, shall be borne jointly by such districts, and be apportioned among them in any manner agreed to by such districts in a sharing agreement entered pursuant to section one hundred nineteen-o of the general municipal law. The trustees or boards of education of two or more school districts in a supervisory district may enter into an agreement, or agreements as may be required, with a board of cooperative educational services for the provision of the services of one or more registered professional nurses, and other health professionals to perform health services, including health instruction in such districts.