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School nurse administrators increasingly express concerns over the availability of substitute school nurses with return to in-person learning after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. While healthcare staffing concerns and shortages are not unique to the school setting, the increasing health acuity of the student population, delegation principles, and staffing models complicate the issue. Traditional methods of covering absences may no longer suffice. In this article, five school nurse administrators share strategies, comparing pre-pandemic to current day facilitation of providing coverage for the absences of their healthcare staff.

State School Nurse Consultants provide leadership and technical assistance in many areas related to safety, education, and well-being of students. One area of assistance includes health surveillance and disease prevention. During the pandemic, summer of 2020, the legislative co-chairs of the New Jersey State School Nurses Association advocated for a State School Nurse Consultant position at the New Jersey Department of Education. The story of their relentless pursuit of legislation that would support this position is shared in this article archiving one of the most tumultuous times in recent school nursing history. Successful passage of a law to establish the position of a State School Nurse Consultant was only the initial step in a life-lesson about advocacy, patience, and collaboration. Learn about the roses and thorns of school nursing legislative advocacy and consider joining your affiliates' legislative team!

Many students enter school with a previously diagnosed chronic health condition necessitating school nurse management during the school day. Common pediatric chronic health conditions include asthma, diabetes, seizure disorder, and severe allergy to name a few. In addition, students might present with a less common health condition or an injury or short-term illness requiring school nursing services. Identification of student health conditions originate from a variety of sources, chief among them being school and sport physicals. Yet, primary healthcare provider information may not be provided for all students and, when provided, may not contain a complete health history. Thus, school nurses should establish a consistent method of collecting an initial entry-into school health history intake and periodic updates for all students, along with developing a system to distinguish between parent and healthcare provider reporting of health conditions. This is no small task. The purpose of this article is to discuss principles surrounding identifying students with health conditions, along with providing a sample intake form developed in one state that is adaptable for both paper and electronic formatting collection of data.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been taxing to healthcare workers, no less for those serving on the front lines in schools. From initial school closures and online learning to gradual reopening with hybrid learning models, to full in-person learning, school nurse administrators provided guidance in collaboration with public health officials, based on evolving information. Infection control was at the forefront, while government and scientists partnered to quickly develop effective vaccines. Technology provided new virtual platforms for learning, conducting meetings, and socialization, while also being widely used to deliver information, misinformation, and disinformation. Challenges have been numerous, but school nurse administrators and school nurses in general, with a commitment to the health and safety of their populations, continue to adapt to the ever-changing demands. The journal's Editorial Advisory Board interviewed five school nurse administrators, representative of diverse geographic locations, school population size, and employer models, to capture their reflections on school health leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic. History is deserving of their stories.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 is the federal law that protects the privacy of personally identifiable information from student education records and applies to all education entities that receive funding under any program administered by the U.S. Department of Education. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 is the federal law that establishes privacy requirements for patients' protected health information. Together these privacy laws establish rules that guide school nurses in the sharing of student information, even in times of public health emergencies. The U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have issued special updates to privacy laws in response to the Novel Coronavirus Disease providing certain waivers of typical privacy requirements and direction to allow the sharing of information during this public health emergency. The purpose of this article is to briefly review the privacy laws as they relate to schools, as well as to provide an overview of the recent waivers to assist school nurses, school administrators, healthcare professionals, and public health agencies in protecting the health and safety of students during this current public health emergency.

The passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act provides an impetus for school nurse organizations to advocate for student health and climate goals at the state level. Collaboration between state agencies and associations is a starting point for advocacy. Advocacy also includes legislative involvement. This article explores state advocacy and collaboration efforts among school nurse organizations over the past year identifying common themes, with a focus on Every Student Succeeds Act involvement, as well as listing unique activities by state.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently published a clinical report recommending expanded options for seizure rescue medications in the school setting. School nurses rely on prescribing professionals for medical orders to manage children with epilepsy in the school setting. The report suggests additional medications beyond rectal diazepam gel along with discussing the purpose of the medications, the variations in prescribing practices for seizure rescue medications, inconsistencies in legislation based on jurisdictions, and the need for school medical orders for students with epilepsy. There are many issues faced by school personnel when caring for students with a diagnosis of epilepsy, chief among them the presence of licensed health professions for the school to be able to respond quickly and appropriately in the event of a seizure. School nurses can assist health care providers in determining the rescue medication most easily delivered and monitored in the variety of activities that are part of the school experience, including transportation to and from school, field trips, and before- and after-school activities, all beyond the regular classroom setting.

The Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child model released in 2015 as a collaboration between associations focuses renewed attention on the importance of improved physical, emotional, and social health to student learning. The model replaces and expands upon the Coordinated School Health Model that has been widely implemented in schools since the late 1980s. NASN celebrates this new model and calls school nurses to action in advocating for the implementation of this model in their communities. This article not only introduces this new model to school nurses but shares examples of school nurse advocacy initiatives., (© 2016 The Author(s).)

School nurses actively monitor the school population for signs of communicable disease on a daily basis. State regulations outline reportable diseases and provide guidance to control disease outbreak, including management of disease outbreak in the school setting. The purpose of this article is to review strategies recently used in managing a tuberculosis (TB) outbreak at a large high school in Kansas. A timeline of events is presented along with a discussion of the differences between latent TB infection and TB disease. Partnering across agencies and departments enabled the timely testing of over 400 individuals and subsequent management of individuals testing positive for latent TB infection. Public information officers provided necessary guidance to communicate to audiences both internally and externally., (© 2016 The Author(s).)

Three types of documents and their frequently used acronyms play a vital role in ensuring that students with disabilities have the planning, services, and accommodations necessary to facilitate attendance and success in the school setting. Federal and state laws, as well as state nurse practice acts, govern the process and eligibility of students for these services. School nurses play a vital role in these processes, and new school nurses benefit from a comparison of the terms along with a historical explanation of the acronyms., (© 2015 The Author(s).)

It is critical for school nurses to promote and educate others on what they do. Data can help shape the message into understandable language across education and health. While Part 1 of this article discusses NASN's progress on identifying a standardized dataset for school health services, Part 2 focuses on the analysis and sharing of data at the local level. Examples of how to use the data to improve practice and create change are included. Guidance is provided in creating and sharing data as part of an annual report as a final step in advocating for school health services commensurate with student health needs. As the work on an evidence-based uniform dataset continues at the national level, what should be the response at the local level? Do we wait, or do we continue to collect certain data? The purpose of Part 2 of this article is to describe how data being collected locally illustrate health trends, benchmarking, and school nursing outcomes and can be compiled and shared in an annual report.

Many natural disasters, several of which severely impacted school communities around the globe, have occurred in the first few years of the 21st century. School nurses embraced many roles in assisting with disaster recovery. In keeping with this issue's theme of "All Hands on Deck--Recovery and Resiliency After a Disaster," we invited schools to share stories and, in so doing, promote activities that will strengthen disaster response in all school settings. We acknowledge that their recovery is ongoing.

The Americans With Disabilities Amendment Act of 2008 (ADAA), effective January 1, 2009, expanded the definition ofdisability. These changes in turn impact which students qualify for Section 504 plans in the school setting and will no doubt strain school resources as implementation of the law progresses. Therefore, it is essential that school nurses be well versed in the changes in order to continue to perform a lead role in advocating for students with disabilities in the school setting and to assist with Section 504 compliance.

Fortunate indeed are schools that have adequate school nurse-to-student ratios, let alone schools that also value and provide substitute registered nurses (RNs) in the absence of the contracted school nurse. In a recent article in the Journal of School Nursing, Vollinger, Bergren, and Belmonte-Mann discussed personnel who staff the school health office in the absence of the school nurse; the authors found substandard coverage in the majority of the schools. The article recommended, among other things, that school nurses engage in dialogue to encourage programs to increase the number of RN substitutes. The purpose of this roundtable article is to provide initial dialogue on this subject.

NASN continually monitors information of importance to the health of the organization and is dedicated to sharing this information with its stakeholders. Our Weekly Digest provides real-time updates in a concise manner to address the needs of the busy school nurse. This article, "Our Annual Checkup," will provide more depth and include information regarding membership and finances, as well as information pertaining to each area of NASN's strategic plan: Programs, Research, Public Relations, and Advocacy. It is the goal of NASN to utilize the July issue of the NASN School Nurse to provide an annual update to the membership.

NASN has worked tirelessly in 2010-2011 to increase the organization's vision, voice, and visibility under the direction of Sandi Delack, immediate past president. The current officers, staff and NASN School Nurse Editorial Advisory Board identified what they believed to be the top 11 highlights of the past year. This feature is provided as a complement to the lengthier article titled "NASN 2011: Our Annual Checkup--A Look at the Organization's Vital Statistics," published in this same issue.

The following is an article and roundtable discussion on school nurse integration into immunization information systems. The discussion participants were April Bailey, Deputy Director, Immunization Division, Indiana State Department of Health; Thomas Maerz, Manager, Wisconsin Immunization Registry; Erin Seward, Immunization Program Manager, Nevada State Health Division; and Debra Warren, Project Manager, KSWebIZ, Kansas Immunization Program.

Employee wellness is an important component of a coordinated school health program and one that often lacks formalization. With many things competing for the school nurse's attention, health promotion for staff most often consists of helping to arrange flu vaccination and blood pressure screenings. The Comprehensive Health Model assists school personnel desiring to formalize an employee wellness program. An earlier nursing practice management article (Galemore, 2000) explored the history and components of work-site wellness programs. The purpose of this article is to review the process as outlined by the Comprehensive Health Education Model used by one school district to initiate an employee wellness program.

Schools exist for children. Indeed, in Olathe District Schools, the first of five guiding principles is "children first." Facilities, resources, materials, and programs are developed around this principle. Human resources, specifically classroom teachers and various support staff, are considered the most important asset in the education of students. As a result, schools employ an increasing number of individuals in today's work force. However, school districts lag behind other major employers in the provision of worksite wellness for their employees. The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of employee wellness and its application to the school setting. A future Nursing Practice Management section article will discuss the initiation of a school employee wellness program, applying the Comprehensive Health Education Model.