The extent to which observed disparities in access to primary pediatric care are mirrored in
student access to school nursing services is unknown. Using school employment records,
we linked 1,346 nurses to school districts serving 1,141,495 students in Washington state.
The percentage of students who are Black is negatively associated with the student-to-nurse
ratio, while the percentage of students eligible for free-or-reduced-price lunch is positively
associated, and relative to urban districts, rural districts have higher student-to-nurse ratios …

Objective: To determine whether the disparities in access to care observed within pediatric
populations along the lines of race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, and geography are
mirrored in student access to school nursing services. Method: Using school district
employment records we linked 1,346 nurses to 1,141,495 students working in 296 districts
within Washington state in the 2019-2020 school year. We constructed a measure of access
(the student-to-nurse ratio) as the log transform of the total number of nursing full time …