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De Blasio Announces 400 New Nurses To Be Hired For School Reopening
By
Sophia Chang
Published Aug 13, 2020
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Sergii Sobolevskyi / Shutterstock
By
Sophia Chang
Published Aug 13, 2020
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As New York City schools prepare to reopen during the COVID-19 pandemic, each school will now have a “certified nurse” this fall, Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Thursday. The announcement came after years of staffing shortages that left some schools without a dedicated nurse.
The NYC Health + Hospitals Corp. will set up nursing contracts for 400 full-time, on-site nurses, who will be hired and in-place by the first day of school, city officials said in a press release.
They will also be a key component of the school system’s contact tracing program that the city Department of Education has planned as part of de Blasio’s blended learning model this fall.
“We're taking every precaution, but there's a tremendous value to having a health professional present,” de Blasio said at his press briefing Thursday. “So, to all the folks who have been raising that concern, I hear you loud and clear. And that will be in place. We have a whole month until school begins and we're going to be ready to do great things for our kids.”
There has been a nursing shortage in public schools nationally for years, but New York City’s situation has been compounded by pay disparities between nurses hired by two different city agencies.
The city Department of Health is responsible for hiring the majority of school nurses, while the DOE hires hundreds more. Represented by the UFT, DOE nurses have higher pay, benefits, and pensions. The pay gap can range from $10,000 to $20,000 depending on an individual’s level of experience, according to Judy Arroyo, President of DC37’s Local 436 which represents the DOH nurses.
“Parents and educators will be relieved, and the 70,000 students who have gone without will now have access to a medical professional if and when school buildings reopen,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew in a statement Thursday.
It was not immediately clear if the 400 nurses will be paid at DOH or DOE levels. The DOE said the new personnel will be a mix of registered nurses and licensed nurse practitioners.
A hundred of the contract nurses will be dispatched to ZIP codes most impacted by the pandemic for the city’s childcare programs. The DOE also plans to offer a telehealth nursing provider to run a hotline to consult with program leaders and home-based childcare providers.
The New York State Nursing Association, which had issued a statement Monday saying New York City schools need to delay reopening due to lack of supplies, equipment and preparation, said the nurse staffing will mean better care for city students.
"More nurses equals better care—that's true in our hospitals and in our schools. We agree with teachers that every school building should have a nurse. This is important not just for the safety of children and staff during a pandemic, but at all times,” said NYSNA Executive Director, Pat Kane.
But de Blasio’s announcement left out crucial details of funding, recruitment, and level of experience that the contract nurses will have, critics said.
Previous contract nurses did not have full access to student medical records, but the DOE said the new hires will have access, and “as professional licensed nurses are expected to meet their profession’s bar for respecting privacy and confidentiality,” said Nathaniel Styer, a DOE spokesperson, in an email statement.
Kim Watkins, the president of the District 3 Community Education Council and a longtime advocate for addressing nursing pay disparities, also raised the question of whether the 400 nurses will be enough to cover both the pre-existing staffing shortage as well as any new vacancies from nurses who have applied for medical exemptions from the DOE.
Styer said the vacancies have been planned for in the new program. “We have done an analysis of where we might have potential absences as a result of leaves and contracted nursing from Health + Hospitals will provide that coverage,” Styer said.
Councilmember Mark Treyger, who chairs the City Council’s committee on education, told Gothamist he was troubled that the mayor did not explain where all the new nurses would be recruited. “Are they going to be pulling nurses from public hospitals, which are the safety net for our communities?” he said.
A request for information from NYC Health + Hospitals was not immediately returned Thursday.
Tagged
COVID-19
school nurse
schools reopening
Sophia Chang
Sophia Chang is a former WNYC and Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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