Leadership Matters - March 2013

School Nurse dilemma—————————————————————————

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nurses associations! If you check their websites, you will see that they are urging people to write letters to convince (read “pressure”) ISBE to enforce the rules on CSNs. The School Management Alliance and IASA are again at that table dealing with that issue. Here is the old axe to grind: To make a long story short, my wife has a Type 09 teaching certificate, is also an RN, and has several years of experience in both fields. At one point, the local school district contacted her to gauge her interest in their school nurse position. She took the position and one of her motivations for doing so was to add some retirement credit to her years in TRS. She found she could not do that because she had no Type 73 certificate, so her job status as a non-certified person placed her in IMRF. She contacted ISBE, Professional Regulation and the nurses associations. No one considered that holding a valid teaching degree in addition to an RPN license was equal to a Type 73 — even though the coursework matched up. Those who were making this decision were insistent that she take additional specialized coursework to meet the requirements of a Type 73. At that time there were only three universities that had the required coursework and none of it was offered on-line and very little on weekends or evenings. Then there was the internship requirement of 300 hours under the supervision of a CSN. Too many hurdles. The main argument of those in support of CSNs is that an RN without the courses in psychology, education and special education lacks the knowledge necessary to make educational recommendations. At the time it seemed very odd to me that an RN with a teaching certificate was not qualified to do the things a CSN could do and could not be granted a Type 73 certificate. It seems that it is more about certification and status than it is about real qualifications based on skill and knowledge. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! The crux of this dilemma seems to center on the fact that only CSNs are qualified to make educational recommendations, particularly involving special education placements. In talking to a number of special education administrators, a couple of things became apparent: First, few of them have access to CSNs and did not view that as problematic. As an example, one Special Ed Co-Op reported having 14 schools districts and only one of them had a CSN. Up to this point, that was not viewed a problem, but certainly would be on July 1.

Second, when school nurses attended IEP meetings and reviews, their role was to provide medical information, not make recommendations. Placement recommendations are made by special education professionals based on the data they gain at IEP meetings; school nurses simply furnish part of that data. An example I was given involved information from a school nurse about a diabetic student who needed to take insulin during the school day. The nurse outlined the procedure and the times for administration plus information on the student’s symptoms. That information was to be passed on to the special education teachers if the student was recommended for placement. The school nurse made no recommendation. Another point here is that parents can provide medical information on their own and even can request their own physician to provide information. Often an RN from the physician’s office will attend the IEP meeting. It would be highly unlikely for that person to be a CSN. Are there advantages to having a Certified School Nurse? Obviously there are. It would be good if all school nurses were certified. But there are many things that would be good to have in schools but are not practical or affordable. Some food for thought:  Is this a problem that needs to be fixed, or Association and the Board of Directors of the National Federation of State High School Associations. He currently serves on boards for Illinois Energy Net and the Illinois Principals Foundation and is associated with a New York- based firm that does consulting work with non- profit organizations. Dr. David Turner is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Springfield (UIS), where his teaching concentrations are the principalship and the principal internship. Prior to joining the UIS faculty, Dr. Turner served 12 years as the Executive Director of the Illinois Principals Association (IPA). During his 20 years as a high school principal he served on the Illinois State Scholarship Commission, the Board of Directors of the Illinois High School

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