Most trips to a Denton ISD nurse's office end with the student back at a desk, according to a health services report on the school board's agenda tonight.
The update, prepared by Director of Health Services Makinzie Heard for the board's 6 p.m. regular meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27, counts 99,018 office visits. Of those, 95,793 ended with the student returning to class, a rate of 96.7%. The presentation frames that figure as instructional time saved, saying nurses help handle health needs while keeping students in the classroom.
A busy year by the numbers
Office visits were only part of the workload. Beyond them, the report says, the department saw 24,036 different students last school year, gave 66,398 medications and treatments and completed 45,570 screenings. Added together, that is 210,986 health services encounters handled by 48 campus nurses.
Cardiac emergencies
A section on safety and preparedness points to SB 865, the Landon Payton Act, which the presentation says requires Texas school districts to put a Cardiac Emergency Response Plan in place. The district lists dedicated cardiac emergency response teams, scheduled drills and CPR practice, AED maintenance checks and a Heart Safe Schools designation through Cook Children's and Project ADAM as part of that work.
The same slide reports 36 calls to EMS for student and staff medical needs so far this school year.
