A Shortage Of School Nurses - California Healthline

Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a new recommendation that every school in the U.S. have at least one nurse on site. Currently, 57 percent of California’s public school districts do not employ nurses.

The group’s new guideline replaces its previous one, which recommended that school districts have one nurse for every 750 healthy students. But California fell short on that recommendation as well. According to numbers from KidsData, a program of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, there was only one nurse for every 2,784 students in California 2014.

Siskiyou County had the lowest ratio with 999 students per nurse. Santa Cruz and Yuba Counties had it far worse with one nurse for every 13,432 and 13,892 students, respectively.

You can read more about this topic in Ana B. Ibarra’s May 25 article.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

<h1>A Shortage Of School Nurses</h1>
<div>		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2016-05-31T12:00:13-07:00">
			May 31, 2016		</time>
		</div>
<p>Last week, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a new recommendation that every school in the U.S. have at least one nurse on site. Currently, 57 percent of California’s public school districts do not employ nurses.</p><p>The group’s new guideline replaces its previous one, which recommended that school districts have one nurse for every 750 healthy students. But California fell short on that recommendation as well. According to numbers from <a href="http://www.kidsdata.org/topic/126/pupilsupportpersonnel-type/table#fmt=2320&loc=2,127,347,1763,331,348,336,171,321,345,357,332,324,369,358,362,360,337,327,364,356,217,353,328,354,323,352,320,339,334,365,343,330,367,344,355,366,368,265,349,361,4,273,59,370,326,333,322,341,338,350,342,329,325,359,351,363,340,335&tf=79,73,67,64&ch=280&sortColumnId=1&sortType=asc">KidsData</a>, a program of the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children’s Health, there was only one nurse for every 2,784 students in California 2014.</p><p>Siskiyou County had the lowest ratio with 999 students per nurse. Santa Cruz and Yuba Counties had it far worse with one nurse for every 13,432 and 13,892 students, respectively.</p><p>You can read more about this topic in Ana B. Ibarra’s <a href="http://californiahealthline.org/news/californias-glaring-shortage-of-school-nurses/">May 25 article</a>.</p><ul><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/multimedia/a-shortage-of-school-nurses/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/multimedia/a-shortage-of-school-nurses/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/multimedia/a-shortage-of-school-nurses/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20A%20Shortage%20Of%20School%20Nurses&body=https%3A%2F%2Fcaliforniahealthline.org%2Fmultimedia%2Fa-shortage-of-school-nurses%2F&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/multimedia/a-shortage-of-school-nurses/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li></ul><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://californiahealthline.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p>

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