The National Association of School Nurses (NASN) launched the National School Health Data Set: Every Student Counts! data initiative in 2018. The data set is comprised of four main areas and has an overarching goal of identifying best practices in school health to meet the needs of students and improve health outcomes. Management of the recent pandemic might have interfered with school nurses participating in this initiative. The goal of this article is to reenergize and familiarize school nurses with this data initiative and highlight the data points added or expanded since 2018 and why they are important to school nursing practice and addressing health equity of students. For more information on NASN’s National School Health Data Set: Every Student Counts!, go to https://nasn.org/everystudentcounts.
BaschC. (2011). Healthier students are better learners: A missing link in efforts to close the achievement gap. Journal of School Health, 81(10), 593–598. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1746-1561.2011.00632.x
3.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME-CFS). https://www.cdc.gov/me-cfs/index.html
FazlulI.KoedelC.ParsonsE. (2021). Free and reduced-price meal eligibility does not measure student poverty: Evidence and policy significance (EdWorkingPaper: 21-415). Annenberg Institute at Brown University. https://doi.org/10.26300/ytaf-nc39
Institute of Medicine. (2015). Beyond myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome: Redefining an illness. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/19012
8.
IssaN. (2022). Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS): What it means to school nurses [Conference session]. National Association of School Nurses2022, Atlanta, GA, United States.
MaughanE.BergrenM. D.JohnsonK. (2018). Introducing NASN’s new data initiative: National school health data set: Every student counts! Make this YOUR year of data. NASN School Nurse, 33(5), 291–294. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602x18791572
11.
MaughanE.BergrenM. D.JohnsonK. (2021). The national school health data set: Every student counts! New data platform. NASN School Nurse, 36(1), 29–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/1942602x20975873
National Association of School Nurses. (2019). Translating strategies into action to improve care coordination for students with chronic health conditions [White paper]. https://learn.nasn.org/courses/11191
National Center for Education Statistics. (2021a). English learner (EL) students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools, by state: Selected years, fall 2000 through fall 2019. Digest of Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_204.20.asp
23.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2021b). Number and percentage of public school students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, by state: Selected years, 2000-01 through 2019-20. Digest of Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d21/tables/dt21_204.10.asp
24.
National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Concentration of public school students eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch. Condition of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/clb
