# Plain Language Summary of the NURSE Act

This bill creates a federal grant program to help schools hire more nurses. Right now, many schools don't have nurses on staff, or only have them part-time. According to the bill, only about 39 percent of schools have a full-time nurse, while 35 percent have part-time nurses, and 25 percent have no nurse at all. This bill would provide federal money to schools that need it most to hire additional registered nurses.

The grants would go to school districts and groups of districts that serve a lot of low-income students—specifically, places where at least 20 percent of kids qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches. The federal government would cover up to 75 percent of the cost of hiring new nurses, with the school district covering the remaining 25 percent. Priority would be given to the poorest districts and those that currently have no school nurses at all. The bill also allows schools to hire nurses who can work across multiple school buildings to serve several districts together.

The money would be used specifically to pay for school nurses' salaries and related costs. School nurses handle a wide range of responsibilities: they manage students' chronic health conditions like asthma and diabetes, administer medications, provide mental health support, screen for vision and hearing problems, help with disease prevention, and coordinate health services. The bill emphasizes that nurses spend nearly a third of their time on mental health services, which has become increasingly important for students.

The grants would be temporary, designed to help schools get started. Federal funding would decrease each year, pushing schools to eventually fund these positions themselves through state and local budgets. The bill also requires the Department of Education to report back to Congress within two years on whether the program actually increased the number of school nurses and whether having more nurses improved student health, attendance, and academic performance.

NURSE Act

Titus, Dina

Nurses for Under-Resourced Schools Everywhere Act or the NURSE Act This bill establishes a demonstration grant program through which the Department of Education&nbsp;must award matching funds to increase the number of school nurses in public elementary and secondary schools served by a local educational agency in which at least 20% of students are eligible to participate in the school lunch program.