School Nurses: Best Friends for Children with Chronic Health Conditions and their Families
School nurses can make a big difference in the lives of children with chronic health conditions and their families. About 1 in 4 children ages 2 to 8 have chronic health conditions like asthma, diabetes, seizure disorders, food allergies, and poor oral health.
Having a chronic health condition is one reason children may do poorly in school, possibly because of excessive absences (missing about 18 school days or more in a year). School Health Services staff – including school nurses, nurse practitioners, dental providers, physicians, mental health professionals and other health personnel – can help improve academic achievement and decrease absences by assessing students’ health status, identifying related barriers to educational progress, and developing a plan to help avoid absences.
Attending school every day is strongly associated with higher standardized test scores and graduation rates and with lower dropout rates. Even if a student is late or has to leave school early because of illness or a doctor’s appointment, some attendance at school is always better than none.
School Health Services staff can also assist families in other ways. For instance, a school nurse can:
• Help students and their families get access to health insurance.
• Provide care coordination and help students and their families access community health care providers.
• Engage families to increase awareness of services available at school and of how they can benefit students.
Having school nurses not only makes a big difference for students’ health and academic achievement, but also benefits parents and society in general. Research shows that for every $1 spent on school nursing, society saves $2.20 by reducing emergency-room visits and keeping parents from missing work.
Parents can find out which School Health Services their child’s school offers by checking out the school handbook or school website, attending a school wellness meeting or PTA meeting, or simply asking their child’s teacher.
For more information about School Health Services and the benefit to student performance, visit: https://www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/schoo lhealthservices.htm
For more ideas on how parents can support their child’s school in providing health services, download CDC’s Ideas for Parents fact sheet