To establish the reliability of school nurses given training in height measurement we conducted an intra- and inter-individual reliability study under field conditions. The measurements of 7 school nurses were compared with those of a trained auxologist. The pooled standard deviation of the differences between repeat measurements for the school nurses (0.32 cm) compared favourably with that of the auxologist (0.35 cm). Height measurements made by school nurses were accurate within the range of -0.53 cm to +0.64 cm when compared with the auxologist. We conclude that a single, accurate height measurement made by a school nurse would be sufficiently reliable for use in routine screening for short stature.