AN ACT CONCERNING VARIOUS REVISIONS TO THE EDUCATION STATUTES.

1. requires the report on the operation of charter schools that the education commissioner must annually submit to the Education Committee, to instead be submitted biennially, beginning January 1, 2011;

2. requires boards of education participating in the school breakfast program to submit a financial statement on the program annually in the time and manner the commissioner requires, rather than by September 1 of the next year and requires, rather than allows, the commissioner to require repayment of funds to the state that were inappropriately spent;

3. replaces the term “regional vocational-technical school” with “technical high school” throughout the statutes;

4. applies the records transfer rules applicable to Unified School District #1 (Department of Corrections) to Unified School District #2 (Department of Children and Families) and, in the case of other districts and state charter schools, requires that notice of student transfer to a new school be sent to the previous school district within two business days of the student's registration; and

5. requires the State Board of Education to adopt regulations to enhance school nurse qualifications.

EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2009, except for the provisions on the charter school report and records transfer, which are effective on passage.

By law, when a student enrolls in a school in a new school district or state charter school, the new district or school must provide written notification of enrollment to the student's previous school district or the state charter school. The bill specifies that this must be done within two business days after the student's registration. By law, the records must be transferred to the new school within 10 days of receiving the notification.

By law, if a student transfers from Unified School District #1, the new school district or charter school must provide notice of enrollment to the unified district within 10 days of such enrollment. The unified district has 10 days to transfer the records after it receives the notification. The new district or charter school has 30 days to credit the student for all instruction received in the unified school district. The bill applies these provisions to Unified School District #2.

1. be certified in cardiopulmonary resuscitation;

2. have at least two years of full-time working experience as a registered nurse during the five-year period immediately before the date of employment as a school nurse; and

3. maintain a valid Connecticut nursing license.

The bill requires the regulations to exempt nurses employed by schools before July 1, 2009 from everything but the license requirement. Additionally, if a public school is staffed by a full-time nurse or nurse practitioner who meets all of the requirements, the bill allows boards of education to appoint or employ an additional nurse at the school who does not meet the experience requirement.

1. be a registered professional nurse, designated as R. N. and currently licensed in the state of Connecticut;

2. have at least the equivalent of one year full-time working experience as a registered nurse within five years immediately prior to employment as a school nurse; and

3. have academic preparation to include 12 credits at a licensed or accredited institution of higher learning, 18 continuing education units, or 180 workshop or in-service hours meeting certain distribution requirements (Conn. Agency Regs. § 10-212-2).

On May 5, 2009, the House referred the bill to the Public Health Committee which, on May 12, reported a substitute of the bill that eliminated new education, continuing education, and certification requirements for school nurses and added the provision exempting additional school nurses from meeting the experience requirement.