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Chandler Unified health services outlines staffing, screenings and Lions Club vision partnership
Summary
Health Services Director Christine Bromley told the board the district screens roughly 22,000 students annually, maintains 83 AEDs and has partnered with the Lions Club to provide free eye exams and glasses; board members pressed for explanations of rising health-office visits, vision failures and incident-report counts.
Christine Bromley, health service director for Chandler Unified School District #80, told the board during a study session that the district’s health services team screens about 22,000 students each school year, operates 83 automated external defibrillator (AED) units across campuses and has begun a partnership with the Lions Club to provide free eye exams and glasses to students.
Bromley said the health-services team includes registered nurses working as elementary health-service coordinators, school nurses at secondary campuses and two district "rover" nurses who fill in when a registered nurse is absent. She said eight elementary coordinators are each assigned to four to five campuses and typically manage about 2,250 student "lives" on average; secondary nurses manage roughly 2,000 students at a single site. The district also employs health assistants (17 certified nursing assistants, 21 medical assistants, two EMT-level staff and one LPN) who work under RN delegation and are not authorized to perform nursing assessments.
The presentation described the district’s vision and hearing screening program, which Bromley said is performed under state law and staffed by one audiologist and five certified vision/hearing team members. "We do screen on average about 22,000 students a school year," she said. The district follows rescreen and referral protocols for hearing failures (a rescreen 15–30 days after an initial failure, then referral to a provider if needed) and screens certain grades and all special-education students annually.
Bromley highlighted a community partnership the board approved by memorandum of understanding in March with the Lions Club. She said a mobile Lions Club clinic on Oct. 13 screened 42 students and that 35 students received glasses; she also reported an upcoming San Marcos clinic with dozens of students scheduled. "The Lions Club has been amazing to work with," Bromley said, and she reported the health office had 888 outstanding applications out to parents for future events.
On emergency response and equipment, Bromley said the district manages AED compliance across campuses, maintains serial-number records and ensures readiness. She noted a recent state law referenced in the presentation that expanded AED placement requirements to athletic fields; health services maintain those units and monitor compliance.
Board members pressed Bromley about apparent spikes in health-office visits, higher vision-failure rates and rising counts of accident/medical reports. One board member said elementary health-office visits appeared up more than 20 percent year over year and asked for an explanation. "It can be due to seasonal allergies, the change in the temperatures, the weather," Bromley said, adding that increases in asthma and other respiratory cases and fluctuations in community illness can drive visit counts. She also said behavioral and mental-health needs are a factor: "Overall, anxiety, mental health, yes," she said, noting the health office serves as a safe place where students can collect themselves for short periods.
Regarding accident reports, Bromley and other speakers clarified that the district’s labeled "accident report" category also captures medical-management events—instances where staff refer students to providers, document nebulizer or inhaler treatments, or record epi‑pen administration—not only playground injuries. That broader categorization can increase the count of reports even if fewer true accidents have occurred.
Bromley described the district’s referral and handoff process: school nurses meet with counselors, administrators and multidisciplinary teams; some sites use discreet signals ("red cards") so students can request help without speaking; and nurses receive recurring training on mental-health identification and referral. When asked about funding for nursing services and the status of statewide programs, Bromley said she did not have detailed state or federal funding information at the meeting and the board agreed to follow up with district administrators for a funding update.
No formal motions or votes were taken on the health-services presentation; the board paused for a 10-minute break and planned to continue with the regular business meeting. The presentation will be followed up by district staff to provide additional detail on funding and next steps.
