This bill amends RCW 28A.210.300 to change school district health staffing requirements. For school districts of the first class the board of directors must employ a "school nurse" to protect student health. For school districts of the second class the board of directors may employ a regularly licensed physician, a registered nurse, or an advanced registered nurse practitioner to protect student health. The bill specifies that, for purposes of the subsection, "school nurse" means a registered nurse or an advanced registered nurse practitioner who holds a valid educational staff associate certificate for school nurses. The printed text also includes the parenthetical phrase "((or a licensed public health nurse))," but the bill text provided does not make clear whether that wording is being added, retained, or deleted. This is a modification of existing law that creates a mandatory employment requirement for first-class districts and an optional hiring authority for second-class districts; it is a statutory staffing/procedural change, not a criminal or penalty change. The extract does not show an effective date, implementation timeline, funding, enforcement, or penalty provisions, and it does not include the statutory definitions or criteria that determine which districts are "first class" or "second class" (it cites RCW 28A.300.065 for those definitions). The bill was read for the first time on 01/15/25 and was referred to the Committee on Early Learning & K-12 Education.

If enacted, school districts designated as "first class" will need to add a dedicated school nurse position, which in practice means their school boards will have to recruit, hire, and pay a licensed nurse to provide student health services. That will create a new recurring personnel cost and an ongoing administrative task to meet whatever credentialing the law expects; the text defines "school nurse" as a registered nurse or advanced nurse practitioner with an educational staff associate certificate for at least part of the bill, but it is unclear whether that certificate requirement applies to the first-class district mandate. Students in those districts are likely to see more regular access to on-site health care, while boards will need to identify funding or reallocate resources to cover salaries and any certification support. For school districts of the second class, the bill simply allows (but does not require) boards to hire a licensed physician, registered nurse, or advanced nurse practitioner, giving those districts more staffing options without creating a new mandate. The practical implications are therefore mostly optional: boards can expand health services if they choose, but there is no state funding, effective date, or enforcement language in the provided text, so how and when districts must act, and who pays for any new hires or certifications, remains unclear.