TUESDAY, JUNE 30

TBD

The management of TID in schools is a complex and multifaceted issue. For students with T1D, this means coordination and collaboration among members of the school health team, the student’s family, and their personal healthcare team. Factors impacting diabetes management in schools include the consistent implementation of evidence-based practices by SNs. For SNs, there are knowledge, confidence, and skill/practice gaps impacting diabetes management in schools. Effective diabetes management in schools requires access to evidence-based care, professional development (PD), and hands-on experience with ever-changing diabetes-related technology, implementation of evidence-based interventions, and student health and academic outcome data collection, tracking, and reporting. Through the creation and implementation of a comprehensive national evidence-based T1D curriculum for SNs based on NASN’s T1D CPGs and accompanying Toolkit delivered through online learning, the SN will improve confidence and competence in providing and supervising diabetes care to ensure that children with T1D can thrive academically and socially, without their health condition being a barrier to their education.

Social drivers of health (SDOH) vary between regions of the country influencing community health in diverse ways (Weeks et al., 2023). Preparing school nurses to understand the needs of children they serve is an important aspect of addressing SDOH. To support this objective, an exemplar case of a community-academic partnership was developed to provide tailored local Nursing Continuing Professional Development (NCPD) events to equip school nurses with skills and knowledge relevant to their specific student populations. These events also create opportunities for school nurses to connect, share insight, and discuss common SDOH-related challenges. However, accessibility to high-quality NCPD can be limited for nurses in rural areas (Campos-Zamora, 2022; McCoy, 2009). This session highlights a regional initiative in East Texas, a predominantly rural area, aimed at expanding NCPD opportunities to school nurses based on identified local needs. In the East Texas region, a gap in local NCPD events for school nurses prompted the formation of a regional collaborative partnership (Bullard et al., 2025). This collaboration led to the development of the School Nurse Boot Camp model. The inaugural event, the School Nurse Simulation Boot Camp, centered on best practices for mental and physical health concerns of the school-aged children and continues to be offered semiannually. The School Nurse Data Science Boot Camp was introduced in the 2025/2026 school year, emphasizing the power of school nursing data to identify and address student health needs. During this session, experienced school nurses will describe how they developed the School Nurse Boot Camp model, grounded in NASN’s School Nursing Practice Framework, to deliver locally relevant NCPD opportunities for school nurses across East Texas. Participants will also learn how to apply this model within their own regions to address the tailored school nurse education needs of their communities, using the NASN framework as a guiding structure.

The Thrive and Revive: A Student Mental Health Initiative presentation explores a comprehensive, proactive approach to fostering student well-being within the school environment. This session identifies key factors that influence mental health, including academic pressures, social dynamics, and social drivers of health such as access to supportive relationships, safe and inclusive environments, socioeconomic stability, and availability of school and community resources.. Participants will learn about the purpose and goals of the Thrive and Revive initiative—an event designed to promote resilience, connection, and self-care through collaboration and engagement. Grounded in NASN’s School Nursing Practice Framework™, this initiative highlights the school nurse’s role in advancing care coordination, community/public health, leadership, and quality improvement to promote student mental health and well-being. Emphasis will be placed on the essential role of students, staff, families, and community partners in cultivating a positive mental health culture. Attendees will gain insight into effective strategies for planning, promoting, and implementing a mental health–focused event, as well as methods for evaluating its impact on student engagement and overall school climate. Finally, participants will reflect on lessons learned from Thrive and Revive and explore how to apply these practices to create or enhance wellness-centered programs in their own educational settings.

School nurses are essential to student health, yet the demanding administrative load and heavy documentation requirements pull focus from a fundamental component of school nursing: public health practice focused on the non-medical factors that create barriers to student learning and wellness. This Quality Improvement (QI) session offers a proven process for leveraging technology to reclaim nursing time, directly impacting student individual risk factors caused by social drivers of health (SDOH) and advancing health equity. We assert that workflow efficiency is the key to creating capacity for high-touch, high-value interventions—case management, care coordination, and family engagement—that mitigate challenges like poor access to care and economic instability, ultimately promoting student success and upholding the tenets of NASN’s School Nursing Practice FrameworkTM. Our successful district QI projects, built through district IT collaboration, include: 1) auto-import of screening data for rapid, accurate documentation; 2) automated mail merge for generating standardized, multi-lingual vision/hearing referrals; 3) electronic health record modification for efficient individualized healthcare plan creation; and 4) audit reports to ensure complete health log documentation, vital for Medicaid billing compliance, mandated state reporting, and legal defensibility. Expediting multi-lingual referrals directly addresses the SDOH of Language and Literacy while improving Healthcare Quality and Access. Importantly, improved workflows foster joy in work for nurses by reducing administrative burden and enabling more time for meaningful student and family interactions. This increased satisfaction supports retention and well-being, allowing nurses to build stronger relationships and positively influence the Social and Community Context within schools. By optimizing technology and reclaiming time, nurses can more effectively collaborate, advocate, and create inclusive environments that advance education access and health equity in their districts and statewide.

In response to the unknown impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Services of Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), conducted a districtwide health needs assessment in partnership with Indiana University Bloomington’s Center for Survey Research and Artois Mae Consulting. Guided by the NASN Framework for 21st Century School Nursing Practice, school nurses led a population-focused, equity-centered approach to support evidence-based practice, care coordination, and systems-level leadership. The assessment aimed to identify student needs, address inequities, and guide district improvements.Using the Whole School, Whole Child, Whole Community (WSCC) model, the assessment examined ten components of student wellness while centering social drivers of health, including access to healthcare, food security, and transportation. Parent-reported data revealed significant disparities: 30% of students lacked health insurance for the full past 12 months, and 27% of students needing prescription medication or equipment could not obtain it. Student survey responses highlighted mental health needs, with 27% scoring 3+ on the PHQ-2 (depression screening) and 27% scoring 3+ on the GAD-2 (anxiety screening). Additionally, 63% of parents reported their child was bullied, picked on, or excluded in the past year, underscoring critical social and emotional risks affecting student well-being and school connectedness.Data collection included surveys of students (grades 6–12), staff, and parents, along with qualitative interviews to elevate lived experiences and community priorities. An equity-centered approach guided survey design, implementation, and analysis to ensure representation of diverse voices, especially those most affected by the pandemic. This session will describe the assessment methodology, key findings, and resulting action steps. Presenters will highlight how school nurses operationalized the NASN Framework through leadership, population health management, quality improvement, and community/public health partnerships to translate data into practice. Attendees will gain strategies for leveraging needs assessment data to advocate for comprehensive, student-centered health services and address social drivers of health.

School nurses play a critical role in supporting students with epilepsy by managing chronic disease, educating the school community on seizure safety, and connecting students and families with often underutilized community-based services. The National Association of School Nurses’ (NASN) Coordinated Support System for Students with Epilepsy (CSSSE) program aims to strengthen the capacity of school nurses to serve as the central link in coordinating care and services for these students. By bringing together school personnel, families, and community partners, the CSSSE program ensures that students with epilepsy receive comprehensive support both during their school years and as they transition beyond high school. This session will highlight key resources developed through the initiative, share insights from partnerships with pilot school nurses and a national advisory board, and showcase evidence-based strategies to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for students with epilepsy and their families.

Resources for public schools are challenging as the needs of school communities are increasing. One way to meet these needs has been an innovative pilot academic – school nurse partnership. As a prelicensure and advanced practice education program, the academic partner has strengths and opportunities to bring to all four areas of the School Nurse Practice Framework. The School Nurse, District and Health authorities determine the operational needs and scope. The Academic Partner provides workforce expansion and support.
Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) is contracted to provide nursing in five K-8 health suites. JHUSON has utilized faculty and student resources to provide professional development, rapid response protocols and training, translation services for multi-lingual family materials and interaction, health education supports, networking and professional growth support for the school nurses. Additionally, the JHUSON provides grant writing for program initiatives and quality improvement supports identified by the school nurses. The school nurses provide clinical preceptorship and support graduate student projects. These interactions, in turn, create opportunities to recruit the next generation of potential school nurses.
The blueprint for this partnership has employed matching school community needs with the academic institution resources. This is a partnership where the needs of the community are the driver. While academic institutions have human power and expertise, the schools are the final decision authority.
While this initiative is within its first 2 years, there is anecdotal evidence of success. High quality, continuity of care has been a hallmark of this endeavor. Satisfaction with the services has been expressed by the nurses, administrators, teachers and families of the schools. Formal evaluation is ongoing and outcomes include over 21,000 health suite visits, 200 precepted hours, 8 new protocols, 11 quality improvement projects, and over 20 Professional Development trainings and bilingual family communication forms.

School nurses juggle it all: care, communication, and compliance. But when it comes to student health information, the intricacies of federal privacy laws that define how information may be accessed, used, and disclosed across educational and healthcare settings leave many school nurses uncertain.
Join this interactive session, hosted by the SAMHSA-funded Center of Excellence for Protected Health Information (CoE-PHI).
Using real-world, case-based scenarios, participants will explore how HIPAA, FERPA, and relevant laws apply, including coordinating with external providers, and collaborating with other school staff. Participants will gain strategies and resources to manage student health information while ensuring effective care coordination.

Chronic health conditions affect almost 20% of the school-aged population. Given the rising chronic condition prevalence and the linkage between health and academic performance, schools play an important role in helping students manage their conditions. High-quality care coordination can improve health and academic outcomes for children with chronic conditions and should be accessible to all students. Optimizing the short and long-term outcomes for children with chronic conditions requires an integrated, intentional, and interdisciplinary approach that engages multiple sectors.< br>< br>Partnerships between school nurses, pediatricians, and nonphysician clinicians can create powerful linkages between schools and medical homes and can lay the groundwork for system-level school-based care coordination approaches. Given school nurses role in direct care provision and their expertise in both education and healthcare, school nurses often serve as the primary liaisons between school and healthcare teams. Beyond this facilitation role, professional school nurses’ training and scope of practice position them well as leaders of care coordination efforts. < br>< br>Understanding the current resources and systems for care coordination within the school system is a critical first step. This presentation is designed for school health staff and related health professionals to identify, understand, and build the infrastructure and resources necessary to improve information sharing and care coordination between schools, pediatricians, and nonphysician clinicians. Participants will learn about key resources from the American Academy of Pediatrics, in collaboration with the National Association of School Nurses, including an information sharing consent form template and Implementation Toolkit, as well as case examples, that help in achieving this purpose.

Approximately 27% of the 52 million K-12 school-age children (5-18 years) in the United States experience at least one chronic medical condition requiring them to receive medication during the school day. Adherence to the medications and their scheduled dosing is crucial for the students’ health and academic progress. School nurses (SNs) in Title one schools often provide consistent medication adherence at school, due to social challenges at home. Unfortunately, widespread budgetary cuts have left 18% of schools nationwide with no designated school nurse, leaving most of medication administrations to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP), including secretaries. Medication errors are three times higher when medications are administered by non-healthcare personnel. Despite the availability of technology-assisted applications to help school nurses organize and track medication administration, most of the available systems do not have a safety mechanism to alert school nurses to possible medication errors. NASN’s framework includes the principle of Quality Improvement with a competency for nurses to advance standards of practice through scholarly projects. Yet, limited research exists on best practices for school nurses to establish academic partnership to facilitate new evidence-based technology uptake in schools. The disconnect between academic settings and SNs was raised by some of the school nurses in last year’s NASN conference. This presentation will share how researchers and local school districts successfully partnered to develop and refine an electronic medication administration record (eSMAR) system. The presentation will discuss the partnership process and how the researchers used human-centered design to integrate the school nurses' expertise and perspective to design the eSMAR system. In addition, the presentation will describe the solution, share results of using eSMAR, and ongoing efforts to expand eSMAR in additional schools throughout the districts, and possible policy and regulatory implications.