Who is responsable?

Specialties School

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Is it the schools responsibility to provide a child with their own private nurse if the iep states they have to have a nurse accompany them to attend school. I was just wondering what the law actually states because I have seen school districts in my state that do hire a private nurse and others that require the home health agency to provide the nurse and it comes out of a child's home health hours. Does anyone know where to find this information online?

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

if it's in the iep, i believe it's the school's responsibility to hire a nurse on the district's dime. i'm not sure about the specifics of having to hire from an agency - i think they could probably hire an RN or lpn same as they could hire a personal aide for a child=- will look into that a bit further.

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Specializes in Pedi.

My agency has many private duty patients where the nurse accompanies the child to school and cares for him/her throughout the day. The school pays for it. If the child has additional private duty hours through the state, I believe those are separate since the state isn't paying for the school hours. In my state, school systems/towns are required to meet the educational needs of their children. So, if a child's needs cannot be met by the school district, they have to pay to send them to an out-of-district school as well.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

It may be a matter of negotiation between the parents and school representatives as well as what district policy requires. In our district, there are a number of children whose parents desire (and attempt to sway school agreement) to having a personal nurse accompany their students to school. Our district policy requires a 1:1 nurse for students with supplemental oxygen needs, a trach (regardless of oxygen needs) and/or a running IV. In one case, the parents have a private duty home nurse that they provide, because they desire the consistency and have the means to pay for the service themselves. In other cases, the district provides the nurse, and it is usually a consistent care-giver, but that is not guaranteed.

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Thank you to all. This is very helpful. In my state I have also seen both private duty nurses and school assigned nurse to certain pts. I was just double checking what the information I had found to make sure I was understanding it properly. Thanks

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