The House Education Committee failed to pass a proposal to mandate that each public school campus have at least one nurse and meet a 750-1 student-to-nurse ratio.
House Bill 1516, by Rep. Andy Mayberry, R-Hensley, failed to pass in a voice vote.
The bill was the subject of a two-hour debate that touched on local control, whether the proposal would rob dollars from teacher salaries and whether registered nurses -- which the bill would require new nurses to be -- are available in rural areas.
Mayberry said the bill is a matter of safety in emergencies and essential for chronically ill students to attend school.
"We have some school districts that are going above and beyond what they're supposed to be doing, while we have others that are not meeting the needs of our children," he said.
And Western Hill Elementary School Principal Teresa Richardson testified that her school nurse is only present two days a week.
"That means that I am the school nurse the other parts of the time and my qualifications are motherhood, basically," she said.
Despite a lack of expert knowledge, she administers medicine, including EpiPens, she said.
But some lawmakers said the bill -- because it did not increase funding -- pits one need against others.
"I know every school would like to have an athletic trainer. I know every school would like to have a psychologist. Every school would like to have a social worker," said Rep. DeAnn Vaught, R-Horatio.
"Every school would like to have this. Every school would love to have that. But in here we talk a lot about how our teachers need a raise and they're overdue for this raise."
A substitute teacher testified that a young boy fell, hit his head and sank to the floor without moving. There was no school nurse and officials could not get through to the 911 call center, she said.
The school needs a nurse to deal with those situations, she said.
Rep. Dan Sullivan, R-Jonesboro, asked why the school board doesn't make that decision.
A Section on 02/24/2017