Health News
- Lincoln County Set To Lose Four School Nurses If Alternate Funding Or New Partnerships Are Not Found
UPDATE, Aug. 11: The school board made up part of the health department's budget cut, allowing it to keep seven nurses, "but not before a lengthy discussion which included talk of salary cuts and new pay scales for nurses," The Interior Journal reports....
- Ten-county Lake Cumberland District Health Department Is The Latest To Ask Schools To Foot More Of The Bill For School Nurses
The Lake Cumberland District Health Department told school districts in its 10-county area in December that it would no longer be able to pay for nurses for each school, setting off negotiations with the districts. Somerset Independent Schools Supt....
- School Nurses Are An Unfunded Mandate For Schools, Which Are Picking Up More Of Their Cost As Health Department Budgets Shrink
Marion County nurse Renee Schooling helps Levi Hardin, a Marion County first grader with diabetes, check his blood sugar. (Lebanon Enterprise Photo by Stevie Lowery)Kentucky school nurses are stretched thin across the districts they serve and...
- School Boards Across Ky. Realign School-nurse Programs, Squeezed By Budget Cuts And Medicaid Payment Issues
School districts in Kentucky have long relied on county health departments for school nurses, but state budget cuts and problems with Medicaid reimbursements have squeezed the health agencies, and they in turn have put the squeeze on the schools for more...
- Non-profit Encourages Districts To Go Tobacco Free Inside And Outside Of Schools
In an op-ed piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Susan Zepeda, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, encourages school districts to adopt comprehensive tobacco-free policies. "Many believe that schools are already tobacco-free,...
Health News
Many school districts need more school nurses, report finds
Many if not most Kentucky public school districts have fewer school nurses than national guidelines call for, a Kentucky Youth Advocates report says.
"A Picture of Health: School Health Services in Kentucky" found that "only 38 percent of school districts responding to its survey met or exceeded a National Nurses Association recommendation calling for one school nurse for every 750 students. The average Kentucky district provided one nurse for every 1,254 students," the Lexington Herald-Leader's Jim Warren reports.
The report also found the average district spends less than 1 percent of its operating budget on health services. That number only factored in direct spending by the districts and did not include support that might come from health departments, universities or other organizations.
Of Kentucky's 174 districts, 137 responded to the survey. KYA Executive Director Terry Brooks called the report a "starting point" for looking at ways to expand health services in schools. (Read more)
- Lincoln County Set To Lose Four School Nurses If Alternate Funding Or New Partnerships Are Not Found
UPDATE, Aug. 11: The school board made up part of the health department's budget cut, allowing it to keep seven nurses, "but not before a lengthy discussion which included talk of salary cuts and new pay scales for nurses," The Interior Journal reports....
- Ten-county Lake Cumberland District Health Department Is The Latest To Ask Schools To Foot More Of The Bill For School Nurses
The Lake Cumberland District Health Department told school districts in its 10-county area in December that it would no longer be able to pay for nurses for each school, setting off negotiations with the districts. Somerset Independent Schools Supt....
- School Nurses Are An Unfunded Mandate For Schools, Which Are Picking Up More Of Their Cost As Health Department Budgets Shrink
Marion County nurse Renee Schooling helps Levi Hardin, a Marion County first grader with diabetes, check his blood sugar. (Lebanon Enterprise Photo by Stevie Lowery)Kentucky school nurses are stretched thin across the districts they serve and...
- School Boards Across Ky. Realign School-nurse Programs, Squeezed By Budget Cuts And Medicaid Payment Issues
School districts in Kentucky have long relied on county health departments for school nurses, but state budget cuts and problems with Medicaid reimbursements have squeezed the health agencies, and they in turn have put the squeeze on the schools for more...
- Non-profit Encourages Districts To Go Tobacco Free Inside And Outside Of Schools
In an op-ed piece in the Lexington Herald-Leader, Susan Zepeda, president and CEO of the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, encourages school districts to adopt comprehensive tobacco-free policies. "Many believe that schools are already tobacco-free,...