More school nurses among legislative school safety checklist

A House subcommittee on Monday approved six recommendations that lawmakers say will help make schools in North Carolina safer, from an app to report potential threats anonymously to putting more nurses in schools.

Posted 9:11 p.m. Apr 23, 2018 — Updated 5:50 p.m. Jul 13, 2018

Matthew Burns

, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor

RALEIGH, N.C. — A House subcommittee on Monday approved six recommendations that lawmakers say will help make schools in North Carolina safer, from an app to report potential threats anonymously to putting more nurses in schools.

The school nurses recommendation came after lawmakers heard from some nurses and some of the students with whom they work.

Liz Newlin, past president of the School Nurse Association of North Carolina, said nurses are on the front lines of student safety. Long before the threat of gun violence, nurses are dealing with the mental health of children struggling with life challenges, she said.

"We frequently make home visits to check environmental issues within the home, and we frequently make visits to the doctors as well," Newlin said.

In the 2016-17 school year, nurses in North Carolina schools had 17,000 encounters with students directly related to mental health. Two to three encounters each month regarding suicidal thoughts came from children in elementary schools.

"It's important to note that these are things that don't just occur with middle and high school students," Newlin said. "These are not, 'Oh, I don't feel good.' These are kids describing how they would end their own life."

North Carolina school nurses serve more than 2,300 students on average, far above the federally recommended ratio of one nurse per 750 students, according to state statistics.

"Only 10 percent of the schools actually have a full-time nurse," Newlin said. "Many of the nurses are working with as many as six schools."

Some lawmakers expressed concern that the recommendation called only for working toward meeting national staffing standards for school nurses, psychologists and social workers without including any funding.

Rep. Josh Dobson, R-McDowell, who chairs the subcommittee, said such issues could be brought before the full House Select Committee on School Safety, which will fine tune the recommendations before sending them to the General Assembly when it reconvenes next month.

Gov. Roy Cooper last week proposed an extra $40 million in the state budget to hire up to 500 nurses and counselors for schools statewide.

Officials said Monday that the state would need $76 million a year for nurses alone if officials want to put one in every public school.

The subcommittee's other recommendations include the following:

Accept a nationally certified school psychologist license to fulfill North Carolina licensing requirements so that people moving from out of state could fill positions in schools more quickly.
Require each school to have a threat assessment team to consider potential threats and intervene as needed.
Establish peer counseling programs in middle and high schools.
Develop a plan for better coordination in the work done by school nurses, psychologists and social workers.
Expand the use of a smartphone app that allows people to report potential threats anonymously.

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