Chicago Public Schools Outsource
Children's Health Services

 

Parents and health professionals warned the Chicago Board of Education in 2015 that privatizing nursing services for students to a for-profit company could result in inadequate health care for children. Nonetheless, the Board approved a 4-year $30 million contract with a company called RCM Technologies. This outsourcing was promoted as a cost saving move.

 

Several months into the contract, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) published a report on

  The Outsourcing Epidemic: On the Verge of a Health Crisis as nurses in CTU reported on the drastic failure of this company to meet its contractual obligations, putting nearly 400,000 Chicago students in danger.

 

According to the report, RCM will receive 50% of the cost savings CPS realizes,

although the savings to CPS will hardly be worth the decline in services to students.

With rising levels of diabetes and life-threatening allergies, not to mention the high number of CPS students who do not receive preventative health care, privatizing the nursing department will create a health disaster in Chicago public schools.

 

The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) recommends 1 school nurse per 750 students, and 1 per 125 for students with complex health needs. Certified school nurses are RNs with advanced education in the public health specialty of school nursing.

The current ratio of nurse to students at CPS is 1 to 2446.

 

RCM has not hired certified school nurses. The RCM agency nurses are RNs who do not have specialized preparation to work in the schools, or are licensed practical nurses who are required to work under the supervision of an RN.

 

A certified school nurse may be assigned to five schools and go to one each day of the week. When agency nurses fail to show up at another school to provide a required treatment to a child, which often happens, the school nurse will be ordered to leave her assigned school to provide the necessary care. Rather than fully funding certified school nurses and other nurses who assist them and work full time for the Chicago Public Schools, CPS is starving students of adequate health services.

 

Chicago Teachers Union therefore recommends that CPS end this contract with RCM Technologies and employ a full-time Certified School Nurse (CSN) in every school and enough Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN's) and Health Service Nurses (non-certified RNs called HSNs) to ensure that every CPS student receives the preventative health services and required health care they need at school.

 

Muriel (Manny) Tuteur (1922-2016)

Working women lost a true friend this past February with the passing Manny Tuteur. Manny was a life-long labor activist whose signature issues centered around women, children and family.

Manny brought that interest to CLUW, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, where she served as co-chair of its National Child Care Task Force and as a member of its National Executive Board. Here in Chicago she was the president of the Chicago chapter of CLUW. Katie Jordan, the current president of Chicago CLUW and board member of WWHP, credits Manny with having received most of her training from "this amazing woman."

Manny combined her interest in working women with her love of working with young children, first by working as a preschool educator for the Jewish Community Centers in Chicago and then, in 1969 when the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America hired her to begin a child care center in Chicago for its members. She founded the center and remained its director for its entire history, from 1969 through 1983. Katie Jordan reports that Manny never allowed people to refer to the center as a "daycare" center. Manny insisted this was a quality, child care center. And it was!   Katie reports that people from as far away as Europe came to observe and learn from the center. It gratified Manny that "It also gave those working parents some peace of mind knowing that their children were receiving quality child care, not just day care."

Helen Elkiss, Retired Professor of Labor Education, Chicago Labor Education Program, University of Illinois, wrote us: "What a whirlwind Manny Tuteur was! She never took no for an answer! Manny introduced me to Chicago CLUW and I not only became an active member, I served in a number of officer positions. We worked together on programs for empowering union women and strove to convince the mostly male union leadership that child care was a benefit that needed to be negotiated, just as wages and benefits. Manny Tuteur was an extraordinary woman and a wonderful friend."

Manny established CLUW's Florence Criley Award in 1982, was herself awarded by several organizations, and in 1989 was inducted into Chicago Women's Hall of Fame.