Description of Program:

Parent demands for nurse accessibility in K-12 schools, and Section 504 requires that schools make necessary medical accommodations for students.  And all of this is occurring at a time when schools are suffering from severe funding shortages.  While schools would prefer to have readily-accessible nursing staff at all student events, razor-thin budgets and nursing availability often make this in impossibility.  Many schools have considered downsizing extracurricular offerings and cancelling field trips out of concern for potential liability.  But when is a school nurse legally required to be present during these events? 

This session analyzes the laws that may require schools to have nursing staff present and discusses practical solutions to nursing shortages.  Atty. Erin D. Gilsbach, who is a frequent presenter at school nursing conferences and has advised many school nurses and schools on school nursing issues, takes a closer look at this tricky subject.  Can/should schools use parents of students with disabilities in lieu of school nurses?  Is self-administration of medication on school trips a viable alternative to having a nurse present?  Are schools lawfully able to use volunteer nurses as chaperones on school trips in lieu of hiring nurses to attend?  What laws apply to a decision regarding whether a school nurse is required?  Atty. Gilsbach answers these and many more questions in this informative session, which provides important and much-needed information on this difficult subject.  All school leaders, school nurses, educators, and school trip/extracurricular advisers/organizers need to have this essential information.

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