Handling child health needs during the school day

Implications

Although some parents may assume that children’s health and safety needs will be managed during the hours they spend at school, this Mott Poll indicates that many are not fully confident in the capabilities of their children’s schools to address a range of health issues that may arise.

Most parents were very confident that basic first aid, such as putting a bandage on a student bleeding from a cut, would be handled well by their child’s school. Yet for some parents, their confidence was linked to the presence of a school nurse: those who reported that a school nurse is onsite at their child’s school 5 days/week, nearly all were very confident that basic first aid would be handled well, compared to only three quarters of parents who reported less consistent availability of the school nurse.

However, parents may be overestimating the amount of time the nurse spends at their child’s school. Three in five parents in this Mott Poll, consistent at both the elementary and secondary levels, assume their child’s school had a nurse onsite 5 days per week. However, recent data from the National Association of School Nurses indicates that fewer than half of US schools have full-time nurses, with substantial variation by region.

When the school nurse is not available every day, parents recognize that classroom teachers or the school secretary are often called on to handle everyday health situations. While staff with no medical training may be sufficient for basic first aid needs, they are likely to be less capable in handling health situations related to a student’s chronic disease, such as an asthma attack, epileptic seizure, or serious allergic reaction. Results of this Mott Poll indicate that parents recognize the difference between handling an urgent medical situation and providing basic first aid, reporting substantially lower confidence in the ability of their child’s school to respond to a student having an asthma attack. With estimates that 1 in 4 of US children has a chronic condition, it’s a given that every school will have at least a few students with special health-related needs. Parents of these children will want to work directly with school personnel to understand the onsite availability of school nurses, and to ensure non-medical staff are prepared to handle health-related situations that may arise.

Parents have the least confidence in schools’ ability to help a student who may have mental health problems, and are unclear about which school staff might handle that responsibility. About half of parents with children in middle or high school say the school counselor would be most likely to handle mental health issues. Yet school counselors have many competing demands and large student caseloads, making it difficult to establish personal connections with every student. School counselors also have varying levels of training in how to identify potential mental health problems. Only 15% of parents say their child’s school has any type of screening for mental health problems. Parents may want to learn more about how their child’s school works to identify and support students struggling with mental health issues, and advocate for increased funding and training if the current resources are insufficient.