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Senate advances bill encouraging more school nurses, citing strained ratios
Summary
Senator Miller and others described HB114 as encouraging school districts to increase nurse coverage, noting the current ratio is roughly 1 nurse per 5,000 students and encouraging movement toward 1 per 2,000; the Senate read the bill for a third time and it advanced on a roll call.
Senator Miller described House Bill 114 as an effort to increase school nursing capacity across the state.
"Many of our students...do have chronic diseases such as asthma, diabetes, epilepsy...right now, our current ratio for nurses to kids is 1 to 5000," Miller said, and the bill "encourages school districts to...move towards, over time, 1 to 2,000 so that we would have more nurses that could help address the issues of our kids." The sponsor waived summation, called the question, and the Senate recorded a roll-call vote that showed the bill had sufficient support for third reading (reported as 20 yeas, 5 nays, 4 absent).
The floor discussion was brief and focused on the workforce and student-health rationale; the bill advanced and will be processed according to third-reading procedures.
