I wrote on this subject of too few school nurses in Knox County's (and Tennessee's) schools for the July 23 issue of the Fountain City Focus.

FYI, Gary, Davis's seven year-old son is also a Type 1 diabetic reliant on an insulin pump. In fact, Aleece Stewart, Health Services Director for Knox County Schools, indicates that the school system enrolls two new diabetic students every week. Presently, though, only four of Knox County's elementary schools have their own full-time school nurses.

Since KCS will receive an additional $19 million through the state's BEP funding formula this school year, Elaine and other parents in her predicament are optimistic that some increase in local funding for school nurses may be possible using funds not earmarked by the state for other purposes.

However, KCS is already funding school nurses at a level of 1 : 1083 students, while the state's BEP funding formula pays for just 75% of the cost for a 1 : 3000 student ratio. (Our context for understanding the degree of deficiency, either in Knox County or in Tennessee, is the American Nurses Association's recommended standard of 1 : 750 students.)

We're probably more expedient, then, to target our efforts for more funding to the state. The full story, and what efforts may be underway in Nashville to improve BEP funding for more school nurses, is at http://fountaincityfocus.com/pdfarchive/wk1.pdf (see page 3A).