Jocelyn Piper and her husband, Troy Piper, urged the Chatham School District board during public comment to adopt a formal policy allowing state-waivered home-agency 1-on-1 nurses to provide nursing services in school for medically fragile students.

Jocelyn Piper said her daughter, Oakland, requires continuous oxygen, 24/7 monitoring, suctioning and tube feeds and is covered by a state waiver program that pays for a set number of nursing hours at home. Jocelyn described the districtdecision to hire its own school nurse rather than accept the family's home nurse as the cause of lost family income and interruptions to Oakland's care. “We are so grateful for Chatham Elementary and all the love that they have shown for Oakland,” she said, but added the district has “uneducatedly concluded that they have to hire their own 1 on 1 nurse for Oakland.”

Jocelyn said the district-hired nurse did not provide the same level of care as their agency nurse; the family reported multiple hospitalizations last year they attribute to the school nursecare. She told the board that after the school-hired nurse was injured, Oakland was made homebound because the district could not staff a replacement, and that staffing gaps forced the family to lose the agency they had contracted with. Jocelyn asked the board to “create and uphold a policy on 1 on 1 nursing for the students who have access to home nursing through the state waiver program and allow, in collaboration with home care agencies, the skilled and trained home nurses for these students to attend school with them.”

Troy Piper said the family would prefer to keep Oakland in district schools and that allowing their agency nurse to attend would not cost the district money because the waiver pays for service hours. He described previously leaving a district job as a special-needs bus driver because he could not safely transport their daughter without a nurse at home. “We want our daughter at school. And, when she's homebound, I'm homebound,” he said, adding the family will have “no other option than to homebound Oakland for this coming school year” if the district policy is not changed.

Board members did not respond during the public comment period; the board heard the remarks as part of the visitorsopportunity segment. The family asked that the district accept state-funded agency nurses for 1-on-1 nursing assignments so families can maintain employment and the students can attend school with appropriate skilled nursing coverage.

The speakers named a state waiver program and referenced the student's individualized education program (IEP) and the familyclaim that the lack of consistent nursing denied the student a free and appropriate public education. The board did not take action during the meeting; parents requested the board adopt or clarify district policy to permit collaboration with home nursing agencies for school coverage.