A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS TO INCREASE THE NUMBER OF SCHOOL NURSES.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.(a)  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Public Health, the sum of four million dollars ($4,000,000) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year and the sum of four million dollars ($4,000,000) for the 2008‑2009 fiscal year.  The Department of Health and Human Services, in conjunction with the Department of Public Instruction, shall allocate these funds to communities to hire school nurses. These funds shall be used for direct services and shall provide 80 permanent school nurses.  The criteria for allocating funds shall include determining the areas in the greatest need for school nurses with the greatest inability to pay for these nurses.  Other criteria to be considered shall include (i) the current nurse‑to‑student ratio; (ii) the economic status of the community; and (iii) the health needs of area children. These funds shall be used to supplement and not supplant local, federal, or other State funds for this purpose.  Communities shall maintain their current level of effort and funding for school nurses.  These funds shall not be used for funding nurses for State agencies.
SECTION 1.(b)  The Department of Health and Human Services shall report on the use of funds allocated under this section by December 1, 2008, to the Senate Appropriations Committee on Health and Human Services, the House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, and the Fiscal Research Division.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.