By Eileen Buckley
Buffalo, NY – As Buffalo Public School children head back to classroom next week, there is still no final plan in place to bring back all the school nurses. The District is working to resolve the issue for the new school year.
"Right now we have no provision in place to have school nurses in our schools," said Buffalo Schools Superintendent James Williams.
He says the district is working closely with BOCES to see if the program can provide school nurses. And the district is also reaching out to the state for help.
"We are still talking, and with the assistance of Assemblywoman Peoples who is engaged in this conversation, we are talking at a very high level with the (Pataki) administration."
Buffalo school nurses were funded through Erie County, but the program was cut earlier this year as part massive County budget cuts. The superintendent's executive assistant James Kane says, for now, the district will implement "plan B." Thirteen Kaleida clinics will provide health services to the schools. But Kane says the district is also working on a plan to present to the school board next Wednesday that would ensure students who need to take daily doses of medicine while at school are allowed.
"We have a plan going forward, which will cost about $1.5 million," Kane said. "It would call for a combination of RNs and LPNs to make sure medication is distributed and the children are taken care of."
Kane says they do expect to start out this new school year with more nursing coverage then they had at the end of this past school year.