During the COVID-19 pandemic, school nurses focused on COVID-related tasks and as a result were pulled from many duties that required attention and maintenance. Many school nurses say they were burned out after taking on additional responsibilities related to mitigation strategies and protocols, contact tracing, and addressing indirect health consequences of the pandemic, such as delays in kids getting other critical vaccines or soaring mental health concerns. Additionally, many schools experienced challenges when recruiting nurses and struggled to find qualified applicants due to the pre-existing nursing shortage. Compounding the problem, high turnover continued to exacerbate the staffing shortage.

To address this critical need, the Minnesota Department of Health partnered with the Minnesota Service Cooperatives by building capacity exclusively for COVID-19 response and recovery activities in schools, while also building capacity for future responses.

• $6-million dollar grant for services through 6/30/2023
• Workforce grant for personnel to support COVID-19 prevention, preparedness, response and recovery initiatives which focus on school-based health programs at the K-12 level
• Grant funds a Grant Administrator and Licensed School Nurse plus
• Subgrants awarded to each service cooperative to carry out regional solutions