Page 17 - Leadership Matters March 2013 issue.pub

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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
(Continued from page 16)
(Continued on page 18)
School Nurse dilemma—————————————————————————
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
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.