Presence of School Nurses in Public Schools

The National Center for Education Statistics released a new Data Point report today, entitled School Nurses in U.S. Public Schools. This report describes the presence of school nurses in public schools from the 2007-08 to 2015-16 school years and by selected school characteristics of the 2015-16 school year, including the following findings: During the 2015-16 school year, just over half (52 percent) of public schools had a full-time nurse. Counting part-time nurses, over three-quarters (82 percent) had at least one full-time or one part-time nurse. The percentage of public schools with a full-time nurse increased by 4 percentage points between 2007-08 and 2015-16 (48 to 52 percent), as did the percentage with either a full- or part-time nurse (78 to 82 percent). In the 2015-16 school year, a higher percentage of traditional public schools than public charter schools had at least one school nurse (84 percent compared to 52 percent). Higher percentages of public primary and middle schools (86 and 87 percent, respectively) had at least one full-time or part-time nurse than high schools (75 percent) or combined schools (60 percent).