More bandaids for school nurses

In my short time in Cincinnati, I have observed quite a bit of tension between the city council, the mayor, and the constituents of this city. The most recent round of tension? The debate over school nurses.

The City of Cincinnati is facing a $54 million dollar deficit. That's nothing to sneeze at (pardon the pun). So how does Cincinnati reduce the deficit? Cuts. To just about everything.

I don't want to minimize the value of a balanced budget and a city operating in the black. But it's going to be painful getting there, and services are going to suffer. Lots of services, including highly-valued police and fire. For the sake of today's post, I'm only going to focus on school nurses.

In Cincinnati, there are 50 nurses covering 42 elementary schools. They are funded in part by the City Health Department (60%) and in part by Cincinnati Public Schools (40%). This is an unusual set up. Most school nurses throughout the state are paid through the district's school board, but not here. So when the city experiences financial strain, the schools feel it too. The proposed cuts would eliminate 35 of 50 school nurses by June, leaving a majority of the district's 33,000 students without health care.

For many of these students, the school nurse is their only health care provider, which would make for serious implications for the students and their families. Schools will undoubtedly have to call more parents to pick up kids with minor injuries, aches, and pains that the school nurse would previously have handled with no problem. And students with more serious health issues like asthma and diabetes will be less able to manage their health at school. In this way, cutting school nurses hurts the entire community. Kids with chronic conditions won't be routinely screened and monitored, which means absenteeism will go up, academic achievement could drop, and more community resources will be used up to meet the need.

You can read more about this issue here, including information about state mandates for school nurses (there aren't any in Ohio), and recommended nurse-to-student ratios (1:750) that are already not being met as it is.

If you are in the Cincinnati area and feel strongly about this issue, you there is a rally tomorrow to push city leaders to reinstate funding for school nurses. The rally will be held on Wednesday, February 16th at 12:45 p.m. at City Hall located at 801 Plum St., downtown. The public may also address the council at 1:30, before the regular meeting convenes at 2:00.