Bids sought as parents call for a nurse at every school
Months after an advisory committee recommended the Austin school district put a licensed medical professional on every campus, school officials now are seeking a new provider to offer such comprehensive student health care services.
The district Tuesday issued a request for proposals for nursing and mental health services to “improve on the services we provide today.” But it is unclear how the district, which has forecast a $30 million budget deficit for 201819, would pay for even the services that now are being provided by the Seton Healthcare Family under a 25-year partnership.
The request for proposals comes just months after Seton reduced the number of nurses it h as in the district, wh i ch prompted a backlash among parents and the nurses. The nurses were required to oversee more elementary schools, which were largely staffed by health assistants, who don’t necessarily have any formal medical training. That meant the nurses spent less time on campuses, had less interaction with students and had less direct supervision of the health assistants, which some nurses said could be a liability.
Parents alarmed by the change,
Multiple parents told school officials they had children with life-threatening ailments that required more medical care than they felt a health assistant could administer.
which was made without notifying them, pushed Seton and district officials to reverse the decision. Seton increased the number of nurses for this school year only, covering the $1.8 million cost. But parents have said the district needs a longterm plan and have pushed to place a nurse on every campus, as is the practice
among many Texas school districts.
But such a move could be costly. The district this year is paying Seton $7.1 million for health services, includ- ing mental health services, and Seton annually subsidized between $1 million and $3 million. To place nurses on every campus could cost the district millions more. It was financial constraints that first led the Austin district in the 1990s to stop hav
ing nurses on every elementary campus.
Multiple parents told school officials they had children with life-threatening ailments that required more medical care than they felt a health assistant could administer.
Greg Hartman, Seton’s president of external and academic affairs, said he encouraged Superintendent Paul Cruz a couple of months ago to issue the request “to figure out what is the right match with what the district can afford and what can be provided by a qual- ity provider.”
Seton will submit a proposal, Hartman said.
“We all want to do what’s best for this large district and
the kids in this community,” Hartman said. “It seems like a good way to see what can
the market provide here in a competitive situation. “You never know what
the market can generate ... but no one should kid them- selves. This is a challenging financial issue.”
The district’s 20-page request for proposals is crafted to yield a range of possibilities, detailing the district is flexible about plans that would be put into place
over multiple years, “where staffing services may be used for one or more years while clinic models, telemedicine or other innovative approaches are phased in.”
Over the years, parent Beth Martinez, whose son has multiple life-threatening food allergies, trained her son’s teachers on how to care for him if he had an anaphylactic attack.
“Those of us with kids with special health needs, we’ve been gritting our teeth because of the model provided of unlicensed providers,” she said. “School nursing is not just about putting band-aids on knees and combing lice out of hair anymore. It’s more complicated. Our schools are full of children who have severe asthma, life-threatening allergies, diabetes and heart con
ditions. These are medically complex kids.”
The proposals are due May 1. Then a committee of par
ents, service providers and district staff will evaluate the proposals and make a recommendation to the school board. The board is tentatively slated to review and approve the recommendation June 18.