By Richard Bammer

For people of a certain age, having a school nurse on campus during class hours was a given.

But in Vacaville Unified and other California school districts — and in many other states — the assignment of a school nurse at each campus is downright rare in 2015. School nurses today are often assigned to two or more school sites, visiting each campus on alternating days or, in many cases, every three or four days.

As the nation’s 73,000 school nurses celebrate a special day today, National School Nurse Day, California ranks 40th out of 50 states in terms of nurse-student ratios.

According to 2013 data from the California School Nurses Organization, there is one nurse for every 2,850 of the state’s roughly 6.2 million public school students. The recommended ratio is one to 750 and one to 100 for special needs students.

via State, Vacaville Unified school nurses, advocate for students, handle array of health needs in 2015.