School nurses have been more important than ever keeping students safe during the COVID pandemic. Yet, Vermont still has a school nurse shortage.
The Vermont State School Nurses Association estimates there are about 350 school nurses, compared to the 391 K-12 schools in Vermont. That figure doesn t reveal how many part-time nurses there are, how many are shared across a district, or how many larger schools have multiple nurses.
Sophia Boyle Hall, president of the nurses association, said in her district in the Northeast Kingdom (Kingdom East School District), three schools have part-time nurses and one other school hasn t been able to hire one this year. In the Addison Central School District, six rural elementary schools share two nurses, according to Kelly Landwehr, that district s COVID Coordinator and high school nurse.