School nurses and SROs flagged as vulnerable if funding model shifts, nurses describe emergencies

GOSHEN COUNTY, Wyo. — Two of Goshen County School District #1’s nurses described day-to-day medical workload and argued that changes to the state funding model would imperil student health and safety coverage that the district currently funds locally.

Darby Hoffman, who covers two elementary schools, said she manages 461 students and has logged about 4,548 health-office visits and 4,491 medication administrations this school year. “We case manage, we make healthcare plans, we train dozens of staff,” she told trustees and legislators, adding that the district has “never gone a year without a student with type 1 diabetes.”

A second nurse who oversees middle and high school campuses described thousands of health-office visits, multiple active seizure patients and hundreds of insulin interventions across campuses this year. Both nurses said many nursing duties cannot be delegated and that episodic medical events often require on-the-spot assessment and decisions that are not safely handled by nonmedical staff.

Administrators said that district SRO coverage is funded through local agreements with Torrington Police Department and the Goshen County Sheriff’s Office and that district payments under those agreements—currently about 1.5 SRO-equivalents—would not be covered under the model if local flexibility is removed.

Representative JD Williams and Sen. Sherry Steinmetz heard accounts of long emergency response times in remote parts of the county and were urged to consider the safety implications of altering local funding rules. The board said nurses and SRO positions are currently prioritized by the trustees and funded through the block grant and carryover, not as guaranteed prototypical positions under the draft model.

No formal change was made; legislators encouraged continuing dialogue and recommended submitting specific amendment language to committees.