The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) is closely monitoring the U.S. Department of Education’s (ED) proposed changes to the graduate and professional-student loan program. As you may have seen in recent coverage, the Department’s draft language does not recognize nursing as a professional degree pathway, which could restrict access to the advanced education many school nurses rely on for licensure, certification, and leadership roles.
We want to be absolutely clear with our members: school nursing is a profession, and NASN is actively working in national coalitions with like-minded nursing organizations to protect that recognition and ensure access to affordable graduate education for the school-health workforce.
These coalition efforts ensure NASN’s voice is aligned with national nursing leadership while clearly elevating the school-nurse perspective.
We also know these developments hit at something deeper than loan limits:
They strike at professional identity.
They risk sending a message that advanced nursing preparation is somehow “less than” — when in fact, school nursing requires sophisticated clinical judgment, public-health competency, care coordination, and systems leadership.
This is what we want school nurses to hear from us today:
In the coming weeks, NASN will: