SJUSD Nurse Demonstration Project: A Showcase

The San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) "Putting Healthcare Back into Schools" Nurse Demonstration Project was developed as a six-year endeavor (2007-13) to expand school nursing and formally link school nurses to a school-based health clinic. Sponsored by the Lucile Packard Foundation for Children's Health and Lucile Packard Children's Hospital, the initiative provides funding for full-time school nurses at four elementary and middle schools in SJUSD, and a nurse practitioner at School Health Clinics of Santa Clara County. Additionally, another critical component of the project was the design and implementation of a rigorous five-year evaluation aimed to document the impact of the full-time school nurses.

San Jose Unified School District (SJUSD) is a large and diverse K-12 district in Santa Clara County, California, serving over 30,000 students in 40 schools. In 2007, 51.3% of SJUSD students were identified as Hispanic/Latino and 42.6% of students were enrolled in the free or reduced price lunch program.