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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, School nurses are the healthcare experts in
3schools and are often the only healthcare provider that many
4students encounter; and
 
5    WHEREAS, School nurses have demonstrated their essential
6role in the school system as they mitigated the impact of the
7COVID-19 pandemic; and
 
8    WHEREAS, School nurses have been on the front lines of
9bridging health care and education, providing care
10coordination, and advocating for quality student-centered
11care; and
 
12    WHEREAS, Students turn to the school nurse for both
13physical and emotional safety needs; and
 
14    WHEREAS, School nurses are often the first to identify a
15medical issue that is impacting a student's learning; and
 
16    WHEREAS, School nurses promote access to services in
17underserved communities, often times not only providing
18services to individual school children but also serving as a
19resource to students and families in addressing social
20determinants of health such as homelessness; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, According to the National Survey on Children's
2Health, 40% of school aged children have at least one chronic
3health condition, which are often discovered and managed daily
4by school nurses; and
 
5    WHEREAS, There are no requirements for school districts to
6employ school nurses, and therefore, the hiring requirements
7and parameters around the roles of school nurses vary widely;
8and
 
9    WHEREAS, This lack of formalized hiring practices and
10parameters equates to a lack of information about schools that
11hire school nurses, such as how school nurses are utilized and
12the number of schools that school nurses are required to
13oversee; and
 
14    WHEREAS, The Illinois State Board of Education provides
15oversight to schools in Illinois and already collects data
16from these schools; and
 
17    WHEREAS, The Illinois State Board of Education has a
18department that focuses on coordinated reporting, data
19collection, data implementation sharing, and analyzing data
20for policy and strategic planning; therefore, be it
 

 

 

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1    RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ONE
2HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
3we recognize the vital role of school nurses in providing
4health care to the students of Illinois; and be it further
 
5    RESOLVED, That we urge the Illinois State Board of
6Education to partner with the Illinois Association of School
7Nurses to complete a School Nursing Capacity Study in
8Illinois; and be it further
 
9    RESOLVED, That we recommend that the School Nursing
10Capacity Study in Illinois should include, but not be limited
11to, ascertaining who is providing health care to school
12children in Illinois schools, determining credentials of the
13nurses currently providing care, determining the number of
14schools in which each nurse is required to provide healthcare
15services in each school district, and determining what
16policies are in place to provide healthcare services and by
17whom if a school nurse is not present in the building; and be
18it further
 
19    RESOLVED, That we recognize that the purpose of this study
20is to provide more in-depth data with the overall goal of
21utilizing the data to develop a model for healthcare services
22provided in schools that can address specific needs of each
23community, focusing on students that do not have access to

 

 

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1care outside of the schools; and be it further
 
2    RESOLVED, That we urge the Illinois State Board of
3Education to report its findings to the General Assembly no
4later than January 10, 2023.