A federal cut in funding to state Medicaid programs has begun to resonate locally, as 29 of Alachua County's 42 public school nurses have been laid off.
The nurses' salaries have been paid for through a Medicaid grant for nine years, said Dan Boyd, superintendent of the School Board of Alachua County.
Because that grant is being taken away, the School Board has no way to pay the nurses.
A federal bill that would continue Medicaid funding for another four years is circulating through Congress.
The bill would trickle down to provide the School Board of Alachua County with $13 million per year, Boyd said, which would cover the nurses' salaries.
The bill passed through the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 349 to 62 margin, but it is still awaiting approval in the Senate.
However, President George W. Bush is expected to veto the bill.
The School Board, which has already lost $14 million in state funding, according to Boyd, cannot afford to pay for the nurses' salaries on its own. Especially since Gov. Charlie Crist recently announced another 4 percent cut that will amount to another $4 million in losses.
At a May 27 Alachua County Commission meeting, commissioners said they were unaware nurses were at risk of losing their jobs.
Nurses suggested using money from Choices, a program that helps poor county residents afford medical care, to pay their salaries. County Commissioners were tentative about using the money because that is not the purpose of Choices.
In a June 16 interview, Dr. Jan Voigtman, a volunteer nurse at the A. Quinn Jones Center, said she believes the funding should come from the Choices program because the money comes directly from county residents.
The money should be used more flexibly, Voigtman said.
She also said it will be the children at affected schools who suffer from the nursing layoff.
"They (schools) will get a big wake-up call in August, September and October when they see a big drop-off in attendance," she said.
Voigtman said research has proven a direct correlation between having a full-time school nurse and higher FCAT scores and overall grades.
Jane Williams, a nurse at A. Quinn Jones, spent last school year at Fort Clarke Middle School where she attended to more than 8,000 students and had 11,000 visits throughout the year.
That adds up to more than 70 visits a day.
About 97 percent of the students she saw returned to class, a number that would drop if a school nurse was not available, Williams said.
The School Board will soon ask Alachua County residents for a mileage tax increase to pay for operational services, Boyd said.
The mileage increase will allow them to pay several of the nurses but not all 29.
The 29 nurses who have been laid off worked in local elementary and middle schools.
The other 13 Alachua County public school nurses are paid directly by the School Board and work in county high schools. The
Associated Press contributed to this report.
