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| Rochester
pitches in to save school nurses April 21, 2004 Thanks to the great outpouring of community support and an ad hoc government grant, an emergency fund to continue Rochester's school nurse program through the end of the school year has quickly reached its $700,000 goal. The emergency fund, created to save jobs of some 77 nurses and nurses' aides slated for layoff April 1, was boosted when Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, announced he had secured $200,000 in special state funds. "The community response to saving the school nurses has been overwhelming," Robach said. "In today's world, school nurses are a must." "We're most grateful to Sen. Robach for stepping forward at a
time of crisis," said Rochester Teachers Association President
Adam Urbanski. "He has been and remains an unswerving friend of
public schools." "This gets us through the school year without endangering the lives of our staff and students, but a long-term solution still needs to be found," Urbanski said. "What this funding crisis has shown so dramatically is that our nurses are essential. That's why so many people came to the rallies and sprung to action." Tug of war The funding problem struck when the Monroe County Legislature cut funding for the nurses to close the county's budget gap. The school district unsuccessfully sued the county to force it to continue funding and is expected to appeal. The court ruling found the county wasn't obligated to pay the nurses, though it has been doing so since 1958. The school district, in turn, maintains the State Education Department has advised Rochester it cannot legally hire nurses due to an exception in a 1911 law for Buffalo and Rochester city schools. While there was a dispute over which government body should pay for the program, said county Executive Maggie Brooks, "there has never been any dispute over whether the nurses are needed in the city school district." There must be a new funding plan in place by June 30. As the deadline looms, a task force of representatives of area health companies and county, city and school district officials will try to identify ways to maintain health services to city students. The mayor has said the task force will offer recommendations in 30 to 45 days. In addition, New York State United Teachers' Legislative Department has been meeting with Rochester-area state lawmakers to seek alternative sources of funding, such as the Homeland Security Act and health care aid. In purely economic terms, schools Superintendent Manuel Rivera said the loss of school nurses would inevitably increase costs to the county for emergency care and further burden the community's hospital system. A conservative projection of 3,000 additional emergency room visits by students for treatment that would otherwise be provided by school nurses through the end of the school year would cost taxpayers $2.1 million, Rivera estimated. The superintendent stressed that only trained medical professionals, not other school staff, should be expected to dispense medicine and keep medical charts. "School staff are not trained or qualified to provide mandated health services to students," Rivera said. "For many city students, the school nurse is the only regular source of medical attention they receive," Urbanski said. "Rochester students, many without health insurance, come to school with a range of ongoing, serious medical conditions. Clearly school nurses are not expendable." The Rochester turmoil shows the need for the state Legislature to pass a union-backed bill mandating a school nurse in every building, said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. Several pending bills would require a registered nurse for each public school building. One proposal would require that the commissioner of education make a school-based nurse-to-student staffing determination for each public school building. The school nurse legislation is one of several measures that will be discussed May 4 when hundreds of nurses will come to the Capitol to lobby and meet legislators (see article on page 7). – Sylvia Saunders |
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