Uncared for Booboos by FUSD
Injuries Uncared
Sienna Chitwood
FUSD faces backlash on a new policy regarding nurses in elementary schools. The proposal for this policy is that registered nurses
would have their full-time shifts cut in half and their other shifts would be given to non-licensed nurses instead. The Daily Sun stated “The district is considering changes to its school nurse contracts that would replace registered nurses at half of its elementary schools with unlicensed professionals who would be supervised and assisted by the remaining registered nurses. School nurses, parents of students with chronic health conditions and community members commented at the meeting to explain the role of registered school nurses and to express their concerns about how this change could affect school safety.” Without trained and expert nurses, children who might need immediate trained professionals would instead have an un-trained nurse’s help.
FUSD’s reasoning for this change is due to the COVID funds that increased RN ‘registered nurses’ staff, and how the district is struggling to fund RN’s so they are trying to fill in those open positions. The schools in the FUSD districts that will be most affected are: DeMiguel, Puente de Hozo, and Killip elementary. The backlash of the new policy addresses the concerns of parents and teachers alike. The natural concern of parents is that non-certified nurses will be unable to administer correct medications such as insulin or even EpiPens or be unable to assess a child’s illnesses or even injuries and that could impact a child or school's safety. There is a potion about this new policy being pushed by the change.org who state that “School nurses' training, experience, and when appropriate, medication administration make all the difference when emergencies happen. The American Academy of Pediatrics agrees. They advocate for at least one full-time nurse every school.” They also raise the point that school nurses are not only there for physical reasons but for mental as well. Without full-time nurses who have the capability and knowledge to help children with extreme issues, it will lead that child to severe danger.
The FUSD board has not made a final decision on the nursing matter and no final vote has been casted as off April 27th, 2026.