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DC Health to bring school nursing program in-house, plans retraining and expanded oversight
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Summary
DC Health plans to transition the School Health Services program from Children's School Services to DC Health staff over the summer, creating roughly 222 FTEs and promising retraining, tighter team communication, and efforts to maintain services for the start of the school year.
During the Committee on Health’s June 16 oversight hearing, Director Ayanna Bennett and agency staff detailed a planned in‑house transition of the District’s School Health Services program that the agency says will begin this summer.
What was announced: Bennett said DC Health will shift the school health services program from a contractor, Children’s School Services, to DC Health staffing this summer. "This change will result in DC Health having a much more direct connection to keeping students healthy and staff in school," she said, citing services such as care in nursing suites and school-based health centers and managing required health documentation.
Staffing and timing: The transition will create 222 new FTEs at DC Health, bringing the agency’s total to more than 1,000 FTEs, Bennett and the chair noted. Councilmember Henderson flagged a discrepancy in the FY26 budget chapter that showed funding for only 50 FTEs; Bennett said that was a versioning error and the mayor’s staff and DC Health have the correct figures. Hiring packets are being processed this summer and the agency expects to staff the program for the start of the school year even while the FY26 reprogramming is finalized.
Training, oversight and quality improvements: Bennett said some school health staff who will move into DC Health already have begun retraining and that DC Health will expand continuing-education and daily/weekly team huddles to strengthen team-based care. She emphasized that health technicians will not be expected to make clinical decisions outside their scope and that nurses and medical officers will be available for clinical judgment.
School-based health centers and hours: DC Health will operate most school-based health centers directly while leaving the two highest-utilization centers with current contractor Unity (Cardozo and Coolidge were discussed). The agency plans a consistent base model across sites and to augment services via partnerships; Bennett said she expects to move most centers to full-time coverage as soon as staffing and resources permit.
Billing and sustainability: Bennett told the committee that DC Health and the Office of Health Care Finance are working to enable school health sites to bill Medicaid and that she is “hopeful” the provider status will be in place by the start of the school year.
Oversight and risk: Councilmember Henderson pressed DC Health on HR and IT capacity to onboard hundreds of staff. Bennett acknowledged transition stress and said the agency will grow HR/IT overhead funded within the program and has tools (a registry) to backfill positions if some applicants decline offers.
Ending: The committee asked DC Health for quick follow-ups to reconcile FTE counts and to provide implementation timelines before the committee’s budget markup on June 23.
