Relating to grants for school nursing services; declaring an emergency.
House Bill 3813 authorizes the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) to award grants to school districts and education service districts (ESDs) to develop, implement, and annually update health services plans for students. The bill is aimed at strengthening school nursing services, especially in rural and frontier areas where access is limited, and it requires grant recipients to contract with an Oregon-based nonprofit school nursing professional organization for technical assistance on planning, data collection, and service delivery systems.
The bill also directs ODE to create a pilot program for regional support of school nursing services. Under that pilot, ODE would provide grants to two ESDs so they can support component school districts through school nurses, contracted nursing providers, and nurse-led telehealth services. The pilot includes collection of nonpersonally identifiable data on service use, communicable disease outbreaks, screenings, immunization rates, attendance, academic patterns, and behavior incidents, followed by a report to the Legislature and State Board of Education by September 15, 2027.
HB3813 would add new grant and pilot-program authority within Oregon education law, specifically by adding sections to ORS chapter 327. It would expand ODE’s role from funding schools through the State School Fund to also administering targeted school nursing grants and a regional support pilot, with priority for rural, frontier, and underserved regions. The bill would affect school districts, ESDs, school nursing providers, and a nonprofit school nursing professional organization that would provide technical assistance under required contracts. It also creates a temporary reporting and data-collection framework and repeals the pilot section on January 2, 2028.
The bill’s stated purpose and findings reflect strong support for expanding school nursing services, emphasizing student health, chronic disease management, mental health identification, attendance, and academic outcomes. The absence of recorded committee transcripts or votes means there is no documented opposition or debate in the provided materials, but the bill text itself presents the measure as a response to significant service gaps, especially in rural and frontier counties. Overall, the available context suggests a generally favorable policy posture toward improving school health infrastructure.
No committee discussion or vote history is provided, so no specific objections are documented. Based on the bill text, likely points of focus or contention could include the cost of new grants, the requirement to contract with a specific type of nonprofit organization, the feasibility of staffing and telehealth in rural areas, and the scope of data collection for the pilot program. Another possible issue is whether the pilot’s limited two-ESD design will be sufficient to support broader statewide policy decisions.