School Nurses Face a Wide Variety of Issues with the Start of a New School Year

Thursday, September 3rd, 2026 -- 10:00 AM

(Beatrice Lawrence, Wisconsin Public Radio) It’s back-to-school for Wisconsin students and for the hundreds of school nurses who care for them in districts all over the state.

According to Beatrice Lawrence with the Wisconsin Public Radio, the healthcare needs of students can be wide-ranging and complex. Nurses help students manage chronic conditions like asthma and seizures and take on a public health role by talking with families that are not up-to-date on childhood vaccinations.

WPR’s “Wisconsin Today” spoke with two Wisconsin school nurses about the most pressing issues facing their field this school year. Districts around the country are grappling with severe budget cuts.

Like most other states, Wisconsin doesn’t have a legal requirement for how many nurses a school district must have. That means those positions are vulnerable to layoffs, according to the National Association of School Nurses.

“If you were going to dream a big, beautiful dream, it would be one school nurse to each school,” said Shannon Jones, a school nurse in the Marinette School District and president of the Wisconsin Association of School Nurses. “That is not necessarily the reality that we face in Wisconsin.”

Nurses assigned to multiple schools typically float between them, which means that they’re not consistently available for the kids they serve. “Typically, that nurse is only going to respond to situations that are significant, elevated and require immediate attention, just because their time is in significant demand,” Jones said.

More access to Medicaid funding could help staff schools with nurses. Wisconsin schools get federal reimbursement for covered services if a student qualifies for Medicaid. But under Wisconsin state law, only 60 percent of that goes back to the school, the rest goes to the state government.

The Wisconsin Association of School Nurses is working with legislators to change that. “Those dollars, if they come back to schools, can help sustain those nurse positions,” Jones said. Wisconsin’ school nurses are also making plans to address potential measles outbreaks as childhood vaccination rates continue to decrease.

For the 2025-2026 school year, Wisconsin kindergarteners had among the lowest measles vaccination coverage in the U.S. For many nurses, that means identifying which kids aren’t up-to-date on their vaccinations and having a conversation with parents to ensure they have accurate information.

Tashanda Edelen, a family nurse practitioner and manager of health services at Milwaukee Public Schools, said that establishing trust with parents is especially important when they express reservations about vaccinating their child.

“I try to be very transparent in the information that I’m providing families, so they don’t feel like we are trying to provide them misinformation or sway them one way or another,” Edelen said. Jones said that hearing information on vaccines from another healthcare professional, like a primary care provider, helps as well.

“Trying to get (families) connected to a primary care home is one of the important functions of a nurse,” Jones said. When it comes to keeping students healthy and ready to learn, ensuring that kids have access to regular, nutritious meals is a top priority for school nurses.

The One Big, Beautiful Bill Act made changes to federal food assistance programs that resulted in more than 24,000 Wisconsinites losing access between July of 2025 and April of 2026. That means more kids might not be getting proper nutrition outside of school. It also means they may no longer receive free school lunches.

Generally, receiving SNAP benefits makes a child automatically eligible. Edelen says that if one of her nurses observes that a child may be suffering from a lack of food at home, their job is usually to connect families with resources like food pantries or services that can help maximize their SNAP benefits.

Nurses will often enlist the help of a school social worker. “[We’re] giving families that additional information that someone might have not had shared with them, or ways to help them advocate for themselves too,” Edelen said.

All Milwaukee Public Schools participate in the Community Eligibility Provision program, which gives every student at high-poverty schools access to free school lunch and breakfast without applying. But lower SNAP enrollment could make it harder for schools to qualify in the future.

The Marinette School district offers nutrition education for students. But Jones said Marinette lost a dedicated nutrition educator position after the One Big, Beautiful Bill eliminated funding for the National Education and Obesity Prevention Grant Program, or SNAP-Ed.

That person taught regular nutrition classes to students in the district grades 2 through 4. “It’s unfortunate to see some of that funding go away, knowing the impact that it’ll have long term on children’s health,” Jones said.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.