Judge rules only school nurses can give insulin shots to kids

A Sacramento Superior Court ruled recently that only school nurses have the authority to administer insulin shots to diabetic students in California.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports California has one of the highest ratios of students to school nurses in the country: 2,150 to 1. There are 2,800 nurses in the 9,800 public schools across the state.

In a class-action lawsuit filed in 2005, parents had argued that with so few school nurses left in California, they were having to keep their diabetic children out of school or leave jobs to administer insulin shots themselves.

The California Department of Education settled with parents in 2007 and sent an advisory to districts throughout the state urging them to allow trained, unlicensed school staff to give the shots if a nurse or parent wasn't available.

Nancy Spradling, the executive director of the California School Nurses Organization said that "state law and the Business and Professions Code and the Nurse Practice Act all state clearly what falls under the category of nursing, which includes administering injections."

Improper administration can lead to low blood sugar, which can result in coma and death, she said.