“students should have an equal opportunity
to the best education, and to achieve
to his/her potential, in a safe,
appropriate, and quality learning environment”
Belief Statements
The District has $20,000 budgeted to pay for an outside contractor to work daily with Technology Coordinator, Jack OKorn.
The District defended the expenditure by stating that FC has “700 computers running right now in two buildings”, and OKorn can’t be “two places at the same time”.
At the same time, the district is considering furloughing one of the school nurses.
The district has 1150 students, and the remaining nurse will have to take care of the students in both buildings.
If there is an emergency, the nurse will have to potentially be in “two places at the same time”.
In 2009-2010, the FC school nurses were responsible for 1154 students.
Of those students:
· 7116 received first aid/medical attention
· 3530 were given medication
· 1180 were seen and sent home
· 123 are diagnosed with asthma
· 73 are diagnosed ADHD
· 9 students are required to have epipens
In addition to that, the nurses were responsible for:
· 89 physical exams
· 60 dental exams
· 1294 vision screenings
· 634 audio screenings
· 1154 height and weight screeningss
· 131 scoliosis screenings
If you crunch the numbers, one nurse will see approximately 78 students a day, every day that school is in session.
ONE NURSE – TWO BUILDINGS – 1150 CHILDREN
By law, medications must be administered by a school nurse.
On March 30, 2010, the Pennsylvania Department of Health issued its “Guidelines for Pennsylvania Schools for the Administration of Medications and Emergency Care.”
These Guidelines contain the Department’s interpretation of the laws that govern schools.
. . . the Guidelines support the concept of a nurse in every school building.
. . .once the school district was made aware of the suggested procedures developed by the Department, the District’s failure to follow the Guidelines demonstrates a willful disregard for the safety of the students because the Department has officially stated what the safe practice is for the administration of medication in a school setting.
The Guidelines explicitly do not permit nurses to delegate the task of medication administration.
The Guidelines explain that, in addition to legal constraints, there are a myriad of other reasons why the school district would not want to delegate the administration of medication to persons with no proper medical training and licensing . . .
Thus, the clear statement of the Guidelines is that only a nurse can administer medications in schools to students.
District solicitor Maiello, Brungo & Maiello
