Before 1991, TEA played a significant role in monitoring school health programs. With the repeal of Texas Administrative Code, Chapter 19, Sec. TDH established the School Health Program in 1992, and the Texas Year 2000 Health Objectives calls for comprehensive school health education programs to be in place in all Texas school districts in grades K-12 by the year 2000. Many districts do not have school nurses or offer school health programs. There is no dedicated funding for school nurses.
Funding comes from local property tax revenues or state and federal grants.
Chapter 38, Section 38.011 of the Education Code sets up a grant fund, allocated through a competitive application process, for school health centers. The numbers and types of registered nurses and other health staff and the amount of local funds spent on health services are compared to peer districts in Exhibit 2-50. Each elementary school has a half time clinical assistant and each secondary school has a full-time clinical assistant. The clinical assistants receive training annually in CPR and First Aid. In addition, they receive training in medication administration, clinic procedure, and meet a minimum of four times a year at the district level for in-service training in topics such as mouth trauma, asthma and diabetes.