Kathy's Korner- February

I am on an airplane as I write this coming back from Washington D.C. The Healthy Schools Campaign and the Trust for America’s Health convened a group of interested parties to develop a position paper with recommendations to prioritize health in schools including improving the ratios of school nurses in the schools. How exciting is this! This was the first convening of its kind and I was very excited to be a part of this. The information gathered during this meeting will be finalized and presented to Arne Duncan, the Secretary of Education and also to Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary for Health and Human Services. Anytime that we can bring forward the good works that school nurses do in helping students be healthy and safe in schools it is a giant step for our profession. We have a huge job in getting folks at the Department of Education to seriously look at student health as the missing link to student academic success. Central to the discussion was the use of Medicaid reimbursement to expand nursing services. We are fortunate in Colorado that reimbursement is returned to the participating school districts. It is projected that $17 million will be distributed to those districts this year. One of the largest uses of funds is for expanding nursing services. If your district is not currently taking advantage of this program, I would suggest a call to Jill Mathews, the Medicaid School Health Program Manager here at CDE. She can provide further information whether your district would benefit from participation. Her email is Mathews_j@cde.state.co.us. 1-303-866-6978