May 10, 2019
Contact:
Elena Temple
202-309-4906
etemple@aft.org
www.aft.org
AFT's Randi Weingarten on the NURSE
Act
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WASHINGTON—Statement from Randi Weingarten, president of the American
Federation of Teachers, on support for the Nurses for Under-Resourced Schools
Everywhere (NURSE) Act, sponsored by Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Rep. Dina
Titus (D-Nev.), to help provide nurses in under-resourced public schools:
“When
kids get sick or injured at school, or have unique medical needs, school
nurses are right there, providing the care and comfort students need to feel
safe and healthy at school. This bill isn’t just about providing that care
for the kids who have enough, it’s about providing it for the kids who need a
little more, too.
“Unfortunately, a decade
of disinvestment in public schools has left more than half of all schools
nationwide with no full-time healthcare professional: Three million students
in this country attend schools with some kind of police or security officer,
but no nurse. And too often, these positions are cut in lower-income
districts where students’ only exposure to healthcare may be at school.
School nurses care for other people’s children—they know their names and they
invest in their well-being. In turn, we must invest in those nurses.
“The NURSE Act makes
federal funding available to put a nurse in every school, so children in
under-resourced public schools can get equitable access to the care they
need, and be ready to learn.”
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