The school year begins in a storm: The "Medical Nurse" pilot reaches the Supreme Court
Walla's exposure regarding the placement of ten medical nurses in schools across the country has reached the doors of the Supreme Court. A petition was filed on behalf of the Yahal association against the Ministry of Education, claiming that the emerging program endangers children with allergies: "The safety of helpless children is not a field for 'trial and error'."
Before the start of the new school year, a petition was filed overnight (Monday-Tuesday) to the Supreme Court by the Yahal association - consulting and guidance for food allergies, with the aim of stopping the "Medical Nurse" pilot. The original plan was to place ten medical nurses across the country in order to test the effectiveness of the nurse, among other things as a future replacement for the aides of children suffering from allergies.
According to the petitioners, the Ministry of Education announced the existence of an experiment unilaterally, without the participants having the ability to appeal or refuse it. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education did not receive the consent of the parents of the allergic children participating in the pilot, before the decision to implement it in the various schools.
As reported on Walla last week, the Yahal association had already submitted its claims to the Ministry of Education and even set an ultimatum in advance that if they did not respond by August 30, they would petition the Supreme Court. The association demands that the Ministry of Education commit in writing that no child currently entitled to a medical aide will be left without the medical and environmental response they receive.
As part of the petition, the Yahal association demands to stop the pilot, or alternatively to hold it while providing a real response in which the students' parents will have the opportunity to raise their real concerns.
The pilot is intended for the upcoming school year
The "Institutional Nurse" model is expected to operate during the upcoming school year in ten elementary schools. Four nurses will be allocated to schools in the Haifa and Jerusalem districts, four more to schools in the central region, and two in areas where the Ministry of Health operates the service directly. Each nurse is expected to work about 30 hours a week, five working days. Alongside the pilot, a study will be conducted to examine the possibility of making the model a permanent part of the education system.
The program is intended for schools where there are at least three students in need of medical assistance and where at least three full-time educational support staff are currently employed to provide the response. The nurse is supposed to treat, among other things, students with life-threatening allergies, epilepsy, and diabetes, provide first aid to all students, and instruct the educational teams. Students in need of invasive medical treatments will not be included in the program at this stage and will continue to receive the existing response.
Advocate Gilad Yitzhak Bar-Tal, legal counsel for the Yahal association, who filed the petition, stated:
"Young children, especially in first and second grades, are not mature enough to identify early symptoms of an attack, are not capable of independently taking environmental preventive measures, and cannot be their own last line of defense and bear responsibility for their lives when their environment is neglected. The safety of these helpless children cannot be a field for the Ministry of Education's budgetary or organizational 'trial and error'."
