Advocacy

CSNO’s Statement of Purpose

The purpose of CSNO advocacy is twofold: to promote the practice of the profession of the California Credentialed School Nurse, and to promote safe care at school for the children of California. CSNO advocacy efforts focus on training, providing guidance, and encouraging the individual school nurse to work at a grassroots level for the above purposes.

The CSNO Government Relations Committee (GRC) works closely with our Legislative Advocate to monitor legislation introduced in the California Legislature. The Committee focuses solely on those legislative issues that have the potential to significantly impact the practice of school nursing in California as well as the health and welfare of the students we serve. Bill positions are taken on behalf of CSNO by the GRC and are guided by CSNO’s Board-approved Legislative Platform.

ADVOCACY ACTION NEEDED

Breaking News! CSNO's sponsored bill, AJR 24 (Bonilla), chaptered into law on June 18th!

However there is still work to do! Please read the following and then contact your Federal Congressional Representatives urging them to co-sponsor H.R. 2229 and S. 2047. Template letters are available to you.

AJR 24 urges California’s congressional delegation to sign on as co-sponsors of, and requests Congress and the President to enact two pieces of federal legislation: H.R. 2229 (McCarthy) the Student-to-School Nurse Ratio Improvement Act of 2011, and its companion bill S. 2047 (Schumer) the Student-to-School Nurse Ratio Improvement Act of 2012.

These federal bills would provide competitive demonstration grants through the U.S. Department of Education to eligible local educational agencies, including those in California, in order to reduce student-to-school nurse ratios. The Department of Education would then report back to Congress on the effectiveness of the grant program regarding the relationship of the provision of health services and educational outcomes.

CSNO thanks every school nurse who was actively involved in the legislative process by sending faxes, emails, letters and phone calls to their CA state legislators in support of AJR 24. Our voices were heard! The passage of this state legislation is a positive step forward in recognizing and promoting the importance of the school nurse in educational setting, and also helps to bring a solution to the problem of a lack of funding for school nurses in California.

We now urge you to contact your federal Congressional representative and ask him/her to sign on as a co-sponsor and vote for H.R. 2229; and also to contact both Senators Boxer and Feinstein and ask them to sign on as co-sponsors and vote for S. 2047.

H.R. 2229 Template Letter-In Support of The Student-to-Student Ratio Improvement Act of 2011

S. 2047 Template Letter-In Support of The Student-to-Student Ratio Improvement Act of 2012