House Democrats are proposing federal grants to help train elementary and secondary school nurses to respond to biological and chemical attacks, including those launched by terrorists.
The School Protection Act, from Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y., would authorize spending $20 million each year beginning in fiscal year 2018 on programs that help train school nurses so they can serve as “first responders and crisis managers.”
The bill is aimed at making them more capable of dealing with biological and chemical attacks, “including a terrorist attack, but also in cases of pandemics that hit students or faculty.
Groups would be eligible for money if they provide training that helps school nurses respond in the “critical early stages of an attack,” to notify public health authorities, and take other appropriate actions.
The bill authorizes $20 million a year in spending on the grants beginning in 2018, but it does not describe how to pay for that expenditure.
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., cosponsored the bill. Read it here:
