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“At the end of the day, we have to allow our teachers and school administrators to teach and manage the school, and having a nurse allows them to do their job. A nurse is there to help with health issues that more and more of our children are facing every day.” — Senate Education and Health Committee Chair Barbara Favola, D-Arlington
A newly proposed legislative measure would require all school districts in Virginia to employ a licensed nurse in every school. (Stock photo Sewcream Studio/Getty Images)
By Nathaniel Cline
Virginia schools could be required to have a licensed nurse in every building starting in 2028, under a legislative proposal introduced Wednesday. The measure is designed to close healthcare gaps by placing experts in schools to manage complex medical conditions.
Virginia permits school divisions to employ nurses, but state law doesn't require it. About 8% of Virginia’s schools operate without a nurse.
At the School Health Services Committee’s Wednesday meeting, speakers and committee members supported the proposal. As written, it offers districts facing nurse shortages two-year waivers if they can show they made a good-faith effort to hire.
Map of Chesapeake Watershed states. (Photo by Shannon Heckt/Virginia Mercury)
By Shannon Heckt
Virginia environmental advocacy organizations are trying to determine the full extent of impacts from President Donald Trump’s rescission of a landmark Chesapeake Bay pollution reduction law last week.
“We're still waiting to find out what all of the fallout is going to be,” said Jay Ford, the Virginia policy manager for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “The immediate impacts are a clear weakening of federal leadership right after the signing of the new Bay agreement.”
The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Jennifer Shutt/States Newsroom)
By Ashley Murray
Despite skyrocketing fuel prices and sinking approval ratings for President Donald Trump’s conflict in Iran ahead of the November midterms, Senate Republicans blocked Democrats’ efforts Thursday to check the president’s unfettered military action in the Middle East.
Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., joined Democrats in supporting the House-approved Iran War Powers Resolution.
By Jane Norman
U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Kelly early Thursday issued an order that temporarily blocks President Donald Trump’s ban of three news organizations from the White House.
Kelly, in the eight-page order, said that the White House must “immediately return, reinstate, and restore the White House ‘hard pass’ press credentials held by employees of CNN, MS NOW, and POLITICO that were revoked” Friday and over the weekend.
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