A few months ago, an advisory committee suggested that the school district in Austin should install a licensed medical provider on each campus.
The recommendation has the school district on the hunt for a new company to provide full healthcare services to each of its students. On April 10, the district put out a request for proposals, looking for mental health and nursing service providers.
School districts that put out a request for proposals can use brochure printing to outline exactly what they are looking for. The request for proposals from the Austin school district totals 20 pages and is designed to give providers some flexibility.
For the past two decades, healthcare in Austin schools has been provided by Seton Healthcare Family. But the provider recently cut back on the number of nurses in schools, which led to complaints from parents, as well as from the nurses themselves.
As a result of the backlash, Seton ended up increasing the number of nurses in schools, but only for the current academic year and at a cost of $1.8m. Seton has said it will submit a proposal.
The deadline for proposals is May 1. After that, a committee made up of staff, service providers, and parents will review the submissions and make recommendations to the schoolboard. The board is expected to review and possibly approve the committee's recommendation on June 18.
