Health Services Information

Published August 4, 2010

Good health is essential to effective living and learning. The Williamson County Schools Health Services Department is committed to reducing health-related barriers to learning while providing students with a healthy environment.

Williamson County Schools are staffed with at least one nurse assigned to every school in the district. Several schools have two nurses that share the position, and each school has a nurse on campus or within close proximity at all times of the school day.

“The school nurses have to prioritize their day with each school depending on the types of medical issues within the school,” said Health Services Coordinator Jill Casada. “In addition to coordinating and overseeing the school clinics, the school nurses perform annual health screenings and ensure that all students are adequately immunized.”

Medications

Parents need to be aware of several changes that will affect Williamson County students in the 2010-2011 school year. All medications, both prescription and non-prescription, must be brought in individually with the appropriate FORMS completed for each individual child by the parent/guardian for every school throughout the district. Students are NOT allowed to carry medications in the school setting except those for use in an emergency situation and prescribed by the child’s healthcare provider.

Immunizations

Another change has to do with immunization requirements for any new students enrolling into WCS as well as children starting pre-school, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and seventh grade. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, these children will need a new official Tennessee Certification of Immunization original document to provide to the school or child care provider when asked for an immunization certificate as part of the enrollment process. Parents and guardians must receive the certificate from a health department or healthcare provider licensed in Tennessee.

Medical Forms

If students have medical needs requiring accommodations for them to be able to participate in their education in a school setting, or needs for individualized health care plans or potential emergency medical needs requiring a plan to be in place, the school nurse will work with the student’s parent/guardian and health care provider as needed to develop the plans and/or accommodations needed to ensure that the student’s safety and well-being will be maintained in the school setting.

In addition, Williamson County parents must complete new health history, medication and procedure forms at the start of each school year. These forms can be found on the WCS WEBSITE. For questions regarding medications, procedures and authorization forms relating to these, a parent/guardian may contact the school nurse at their child’s school or Health Services Coordinator Jill Casada at (615)472-4929 or by email at jillc@wcs.edu.