When a Supervisor Becomes An Advocate

3 Consultant: Schools Short On Nurses

2 Click here: New Strategies For School Health Care

1 School Nurses Alarmed Over Shrinking Staff, Rising Needs

"Luis, the district's general director for student support and federal programs, said Monday morning that there is a health professional at every school. On Tuesday morning, he produced a list showing at least one person's name beside each school. Luis said the list was valid as of last week, although subject to change.
The first name The Tampa Tribune checked out was Tanski. The list shows her as the sole health care provider assigned to the South County Career Center.
"I don't even know where that is," Tanski said Tuesday. Her assigned schools are Dowdell Middle and Clair-Mel and Palm River elementary schools, with Summerfield Elementary added this year, she said.
Gallogly said late Wednesday that the list remains "fluid" and is being revised. Tanski's name was listed next to the career center as a "placeholder." There is a nurse at the school, Gallogly said, but she teaches there and is not employed by her department.
The health assistant listed for Riverview High School is Shelly Olsson, who Gallogly confirmed has been doing paperwork and compiling records in her office until this week. She has worked as a health assistant and will work in that capacity to fill in where needed, Gallogly said.
"They're placeholders," Gallogly said of the assignments that don't match what nurses said is reality. "The list is probably 96 percent accurate."

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I must say that in the last 16 years I do not recall so many critical stories regarding the HCDS. The stories have been there, but it seemed the slant always favored the District. Maybe it's just me.

We now have a publicly made line drawn in the sand. I can only assume that the person that is challenging the system is doing so because she is no longer an employee. Hopefully someone will track the future employment status of the two current employees that have now been shown to publicly challenge the District's information.

What is interesting to me is the apparent advocacy that is now being demonstrated by the Supervisor of Health Services. It seems she is willing to come out and say that what is going on is not right. It seems that the reduced numbers of nurses may have something to do with the way the concerns of those on the line are not being respected.

As a self appointed Concierge for the Motel Special Ed, it would be most interesting to see a similar inquiry into the status of the many different areas that have supervisors in the HCDS Special Education Division.

As an example, let's revisit some documented statistics:

"According to a HCDS state complaint dated July 18th, 2005, “82% of the students surveyed by the state had not received the amount of OT services as stated on their 2004-05 IEP. 64% of the students had not received the amount of PT services required by their 2004-05 IEPs." The report states: "The student records reviewed by the Bureau indicated a systemic violation regarding the provision of OT and PT services to students with disabilities during the 2004-05 school years.”http://www.standadvocates.org/2005_OT-PT_State_Complaint_Response.doc, "

As a result of the findings, the District developed a committee to address the issues. The members included district personnel and parents. Sub-committees were set up, including the apparent obligatory sub committee of teacher retention and recruitment. Month's of meetings and documentation. At the end, there was a unanimous recommendation made, despite voiced disagreements by some, mostly parents. This was the second committee I had the priviledge of attending where it appeared that the outcome was pre-determined, despite the input of the parents.

Apparently, since it had not happened before, the parent's that were able to make a complaint that stuck were able to bring about some type of action for the District to supposedly address the problem. While people are snooping around about the nurses, maybe some one could find out how many OT/PT's there are really (not a check box answer) available for the number of kids that are supposed to get the servicies.

But why would parents be involved in the District's operations. If there is a problem, such as documented above, one would think that the people responsible for Supervising their area would be jumping up and down with data that shows there is a problem and demanding responsible support from the District that has a national reputation. Apparently that is not how it works.

Years ago an Administrator made it clear to me that the District did not need policing. I always wonder if the many different Supervisors within the Special Education Division of HCDS aren't jumping up and down about their lack of resources is because there is no police to go to.