All schools have a Registered Nurse assigned to the school's health office. The nurse is there on all school days. Their duties include:

• Providing emergency care with appropriate parent notification and medical referral
• Administering medications and treatments prescribed by a physician
• Performing specialized health care procedures directed by a physician
• Accessing community health resources
• Assessing individual health needs and develop and implement care plans as needed
• Ensuring compliance with State of Illinois mandates for physical examination and immunizations as well as vision and dental exams
• Managing communicable disease in accordance with Illinois Department of Public Health guidelines

Certified Nurses

The certified nurses who serve the students and staff of School District U-46 come from a wide variety of educational/experiential backgrounds. All have Bachelor of Science Degrees and, in fact, many have completed master's degrees as well. 

The Certified School Nurses in District U-46 provide a wide variety of health-related and assessment-related services to the students, including to:

• Serve as liaison between home, school and community
• Provide first aid and emergency care at school
• Administer medications and deliver treatments as ordered by a physician
• Provide classroom teaching at the request of teachers
• Manage student chronic illness during school hours
• Develop school nursing policy
• Gather health-related information for educational purposes, including health histories for students with possible or diagnosed health concerns
• Participate on the school Service Team
• Obtain information from classroom teacher and parent regarding a student's behavior using the Conner's Behavioral Rating Scale. This is done for a small percentage of students. The nurse then scores and presents the results to the parent and teacher
• Conduct vision and hearing screenings on students not screened at other times or those needing additional screenings. The nurse refers students who fail vision and/or hearing screenings and follows up with parents on those referrals
• Provide health-related resources to staff, families
• Ensure compliance with Illinois State Board of Education regulations regarding physical exams, immunizations and other state-required data
• Assist in keeping children healthy and in the classroom