1.This Act may be cited as the
Student-to-School Nurse Ratio
Improvement Act of 2011
.
2.The Congress finds the following:
(1)The American
Academy of Pediatrics emphasizes the crucial role school nurses have in the
seamless provision of comprehensive health services to children and youth, as
well as in the development of a coordinated school health program.
(2)The school nurse
functions as a leader and the coordinator of the school health services team,
facilitating access to a medical home for each child and supporting school
achievement.
(3)Recent national
data indicates 45 percent of public schools have a school nurse all day, every
day, while another 30 percent of schools have a school nurse who works part
time in 1 or more schools.
(4)The American
Nurses Association has reported that when there is no registered nurse on the
school premises, the responsibility to administer the necessary medications and
treatments, and appropriate monitoring of the children falls on the shoulders
of administrators, educators, and staff who are ill-prepared to perform these
tasks.
(5)Statistics from
the National Center for Educational Statistics indicate that of the 52,000,000
children who currently spend their day in schools, 16 percent have chronic
physical, emotional, or other health problems.
(6)A
recent study indicated that from 2002 to 2008, the percentage of children in
special education with health impairments, due to chronic or acute health
problems, increased 60 percent. Within this group, the rate of autism has
doubled since 2002.
(7)A
40-percent increase in asthma has been seen in the past 10 years, along with
nearly 50-percent increase in the incidence of diabetes in the same time
period.
(8)According to the
American Academy of Pediatrics, students today face increased social issues as
well as the need for preventative services and interventions for acute and
chronic health issues.
(9)The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention report that the percentage of children without
health insurance was 8.9 percent in 2008, and with over 1,300,000 homeless
children in the United States, schools have become the only source of health
care for many children and adolescents.
(10)Communicable and
infectious diseases account for millions of school days lost each year. There
is reported evidence that school nurses have a positive impact on immunization
rates, with fewer parent requested exemptions.
(11)A recent study
showed that students with health concerns attended to by school nurses were
able to return to class 95 percent of time, while students attended to by
nonlicensed staff were only able to return to class 82 percent of the
time.
(12)Using a
formula-based approach for determining a balanced student-to-school nurse ratio
offers a reasonable means for achieving better student outcomes.
3.Reducing
student-to-school nurse ratios
(a)
(1)The Secretary of Education, in consultation with the
Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Director of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention, may make demonstration grants to eligible local
educational agencies for the purpose of reducing the student-to-school nurse
ratio in public elementary schools and secondary schools.
(2)To receive a grant under this section, an
eligible local educational agency shall submit to the Secretary of Education an
application at such time, in such manner, and containing such information as
the Secretary of Education may require, which shall include information with
respect to the current ratios of students-to-school nurses in each of the
public elementary secondary and secondary schools served by the agency.
(3)In
awarding grants under this section, the Secretary of Education shall give
priority to applications submitted by high-need local educational agencies that
demonstrate the greatest need for new or additional nursing services among
students in the public elementary secondary and secondary schools served by the
agency.
(4)The Secretary of Education may require recipients of grants
under this section to provide matching funds from non-Federal sources, and
shall permit the recipients to match funds in whole or in part with in-kind
contributions.
(b)Not
later than 24 months after the date on which a grant is first made to a local
educational agency under this section, the Secretary of Education shall submit
to the Congress a report on the results of the demonstration grant program
carried out under this section, including an evaluation—
(1)of the
effectiveness of the program in reducing the student-to-school nurse ratios
described in
subsection (a)(1); and
(2)of the impact of
any resulting enhanced health of students on learning.
(c)For
purposes of this section:
(1)The terms
elementary school, local educational agency,
poverty line, and secondary school have the meanings
given to those terms in section 9101 of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801).
(2)The term
eligible local educational agency means a local educational agency
in which the student-to-school nurse ratio in each public elementary and
secondary school served by the agency is 750 or more students to 1 school
nurse.
(3)The term
high-need local educational agency means a local educational
agency—
(A)that serves not
fewer than 10,000 children from families with incomes below the poverty line;
or
(B)for which not less
than 20 percent of the children served by the agency are from families with
incomes below the poverty line.
(4)The term
nurse means a licensed nurse, as defined under State law.
(d)Authorization of
appropriationsThere are authorized to be appropriated such sums
as may be necessary to carry out this section for each of the fiscal years 2012
through 2016.