Virginia health committee considers mandating licensed nurses in every school

Virginia schools could be required to have a licensed nurse in every building starting in 2028, under a legislative proposal introduced Wednesday. The measure is designed to close healthcare gaps by placing experts in schools to manage complex medical conditions.

Virginia permits school divisions to employ nurses, but state law doesn’t require it. About 8% of Virginia’s schools operate without a nurse.

At the School Health Services Committee’s Wednesday meeting, speakers and committee members supported the proposal. As written, it offers districts facing nurse shortages two-year waivers if they can show they made a good-faith effort to hire.

“School nursing is public health,” said Paula Nichols, school health administrator at Washington County Public Schools, during a video call on Wednesday. 

She said during Hurricane Helene, school nurses helped serve whole communities, not just students during the school day, going door to door to bring cases of water and medical care while wading through high water.

They also helped run community supply drives with other local partners.

“When the next emergency comes, and we know they always do, we need those relationships already in place,” Nichols said.

The proposed policy would require each school board to provide at least one licensed school nurse per building or per 325 students. The requirements would not take effect until July 1, 2028.

Schools have to compete with hospitals, clinics, academic institutions and nursing homes for nurses, according to workforce data collected by the Virginia Department of Health Professions.

Stacy Haynie, a lobbyist representing the Virginia School Board Association, supported the goal of having nurses in school buildings but raised concerns about implementing such a mandate because of a persistent shortage of nurses statewide. 

She noted that even when school boards want to hire nurses, they lack applicants for those positions.

“Regardless of what this committee does with this particular proposed legislation, I think we need to make sure that we don’t lose sight of the fact that there is a shortage of nurses across the commonwealth.”

Senate Education and Health Committee Chair Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, who also chairs the state’s school health services committee, said lawmakers are working to address the shortage.

She also backed the school nurse proposal, calling it a compromise and the main reason the committee was formed. 

“At the end of the day, we have to allow our teachers and school administrators to teach and manage the school, and having a nurse allows them to do their job,” Favola said. “A nurse is there to help with health issues that more and more of our children are facing every day.”

Betsy Looney, a committee member, said, “school nursing is not band-aids and ice packs,” emphasizing the central role nurses play in school safety.

“A nurse in every public school is not an additional service layered into the educational system,” Looney said. “It is the professional infrastructure necessary to safely and effectively implement the health responsibilities Virginia has already placed on its schools.” 

The committee will vote whether to send the proposal to the General Assembly for the upcoming session starting in January at its next business meeting on Nov. 18.