I 
112TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2229 
To make demonstration grants to eligible local educational agencies for the 
purpose of reducing the student-to-school nurse ratio in public elementary 
schools and secondary schools. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 16, 2011 
Mrs. MCCARTHY of New York (for herself, Mrs. CAPPS, Mr. FARR, Ms. NOR-
TON, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. BORDALLO, Ms. MOORE, Mr. HIN-
CHEY, Mr. PASCRELL, and Mr. HOLT) introduced the following bill; which 
was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in 
addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to be 
subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration 
of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee con-
cerned 
A BILL 
To make demonstration grants to eligible local educational 
agencies for the purpose of reducing the student-to- 
school nurse ratio in public elementary schools and sec-
ondary schools. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Student-to-School 
Nurse Ratio Improvement Act of 2011’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
The Congress finds the following: 
(1) The American Academy of Pediatrics em-
phasizes the crucial role school nurses have in the 
seamless provision of comprehensive health services 
to children and youth, as well as in the development 
of a coordinated school health program. 
(2) The school nurse functions as a leader and 
the coordinator of the school health services team, 
facilitating access to a medical home for each child 
and supporting school achievement. 
(3) Recent national data indicates 45 percent of 
public schools have a school nurse all day, every day, 
while another 30 percent of schools have a school 
nurse who works part time in 1 or more schools. 
(4) The American Nurses Association has re-
ported that when there is no registered nurse on the 
school premises, the responsibility to administer the 
necessary medications and treatments, and appro-
priate monitoring of the children falls on the shoul-
ders of administrators, educators, and staff who are 
ill-prepared to perform these tasks. 
(5) Statistics from the National Center for 
Educational 
Statistics 
indicate 
that 
of 
the 
52,000,000 children who currently spend their day 
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in schools, 16 percent have chronic physical, emo-
tional, or other health problems. 
(6) A recent study indicated that from 2002 to 
2008, the percentage of children in special education 
with health impairments, due to chronic or acute 
health problems, increased 60 percent. Within this 
group, the rate of autism has doubled since 2002. 
(7) A 40-percent increase in asthma has been 
seen in the past 10 years, along with nearly 50-per-
cent increase in the incidence of diabetes in the 
same time period. 
(8) According to the American Academy of Pe-
diatrics, students today face increased social issues 
as well as the need for preventative services and 
interventions for acute and chronic health issues. 
(9) The Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
vention report that the percentage of children with-
out health insurance was 8.9 percent in 2008, and 
with over 1,300,000 homeless children in the United 
States, schools have become the only source of 
health care for many children and adolescents. 
(10) Communicable and infectious diseases ac-
count for millions of school days lost each year. 
There is reported evidence that school nurses have 
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