School health director reports increase in nursing workload; district reduced immunization noncompliance from 752 to 20

Michelle Babilias, the district’s Director of School Health, told the board on July 15 that school nurses and health room assistants provided thousands of face‑to‑face student interventions in 2024–25, responded to 31 calls to 911, and documented large increases in active student health conditions compared with the previous year.

Babilias said: “We had 31 calls to 911 last school year for the district. Five of those calls did require administering stock emergency medication…Those EpiPens are free to the district. I also coordinate Narcan in our district, which is also free to the district.”

What the report covered: Babilias outlined the district health office’s responsibilities — policy compliance, emergency action plan templates, staffing and assignment across buildings, disease tracking with Rock County Health Department, and Medicaid reimbursement oversight. She said nurses do extensive care coordination and IEP‑related documentation that, in a typical case, can be hundreds of pages.

Scale and services: Babilias reported more than 11,000 recorded nurse interventions (documented when an intervention beyond a trivial first‑aid item occurs), 400+ field trips requiring nurse coordination, and more than 2,000 diabetic encounters where staff checked blood sugar and calculated carbohydrate dosing. She said district nurses and health room assistants handled the bulk of vision/hearing screenings and follow‑ups.

Immunization compliance and clinics: Babilias said the district began the year with 752 students not compliant with Wisconsin immunization requirements and reduced that number to 20 by coordinating free, on‑site immunization clinics with Rock County Health Department, SSM mobile vaccination clinics, and a community health center. She described outreach and flexible scheduling to remove access barriers.

Emergency preparedness and training: Babilias said the district trains staff in CPR/First Aid/AED via in‑house Red Cross courses at lower cost; 68 staff were certified or recertified in the past year through district training. She said each building runs at least two unannounced medical emergency response drills annually (MERT) and staff remain with students until EMS arrives after stock emergency medication is administered.

Medicaid billing and reimbursement: Babilias also described overseeing Medicaid billing compliance and crediting reimbursements back to nurse‑group accounts; she said she reviews trends and provides training to maximize allowable district reimbursement.

Questions raised: Board members asked about post‑Narcan monitoring (Babilias: nurses and MERT stay with the student until EMS arrives and monitor for relapse), staff access to nursing services (Babilias: emergent staff events are responded to but routine staff clinic visits are referred to the staff member’s primary care), and when the next CPR training will be offered (Babilias: training offered in August; dates depend on administrators’ schedules).

What the board did: The presentation was informational; no action was taken. Board members thanked Babilias and district health staff for reducing immunization noncompliance and for emergency‑response improvements.