During the NJSSNA Executive Board Meeting this evening, Tuesday, January 21st, our NJSSNA President Eileen Gavin, MSN, FNP-BC, NCSN, FNASN announced the great news that Dr. Cynthia Samuel, PhD, RN, CSN-NJ, FNASN, NASN DEI Consultant has agreed to become NJSSNA President-Elect. We are very grateful to the Nominating Committee for their hard work on the State and county level. The Nominating Committee has developed an excellent program on "Celebrating Volunteerism", which Dr. Samuel is going to present to the Gloucester County School Nurses Association on Thursday.

Our thanks to Sheila Caldwell, BSN, RN, CSN-NJ, FNASN for sharing important information from NEA on immigration which is also shared in a separate post, and below: 

"NEA had a great webinar and has publicly facing plethora of resources that NEA has available for any schools or organizations…. great info and I learned a lot about information sharing and ICE in it. Here are some resources that were shared last night:

• NEA's Comprehensive Immigration Guide (also attached): https://www.nea.org/resource-library/guidance-immigration-issues

• Red Cards: https://www.ilrc.org/red-cards-tarjetas-rojas

• Family Preparedness Plan: https://www.ilrc.org/sites/default/files/resources/family_preparedness_plan_v3-20170323.pdf

• Department of Education Dear Colleague Letter - Resources for Ensuring Equal Access to Education for Immigrant Students:  https://www.ed.gov/laws-and-policy/key-policy-letters/dear-colleague-letter-resources-ensuring-equal-access-education-immigrant-students

• Education for All Campaign: https://education4all.us/

• Plyler and Data Collection: https://www.nilc.org/resources/plyler-and-data-collection"

Dr. Laura Jannone, EdD, RN, CSN-NJ, FNASN shared the following news regarding immigration enforcement in sensitive areas such as schools and churches which were previously protected: https://apnews.com/article/immigration-enforcement-sensitive-locations-trump-ab0d2d2652e9df696f14410ebb52a1fc

NJSSNA President, Eileen Gavin shared the link for NASN nursing excellence awards nomination process:

https://njssna.nursingnetwork.com/page/100475-excellence-in-nursing School Nursing Excellence awards

NJSSNA Legislative Chair Gail Hall MSN, RN, CSN-NJ reported that a bill banning cellphone use in school is on the move:

• https://pub.njleg.state.nj.us/Bills/2024/S4000/3695_R1.PDF

• A school nurse from Ramsey stated that her district had adopted the cellphone ban using a system call YONDR, and that it is working well. She stated that her son reported being more attentive.

• The seizure medication legislation is not moving while they await a new Democratic sponsor.

Information regarding the NJSSNA Spring conference:

• NJSSNA Spring 2025 Conference: Pearls of Wisdom for School Nurses

• Friday, March 28, 2025 at 6:00pm ET  through Saturday, March 29, 2025 at 4:30 pm

• Hilton East Brunswick Hotel & Executive Meeting Center

  3 Tower Center Boulevard

  East Brunswick, NJ 08816

• Conference webpage: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AEKG4QTuj-bKgDfahyS6Pyk3NZclgTriKqb1a8Ewcpo/edit?usp=sharing

• Registration link: https://neusha.org/face-to-face-overview/?conf_id=779

• Thanks to the efforts of the NJSSNA Executive Board, travel waivers for the conference have been approved. Please see the NJSSNA homepage announcements at: https://njssna.nursingnetwork.com/ for details.

NASN Director, Robin Cogan, MEd, RN, NCSN, FNASN, FAAN encourages NJSSNA/ NASN members to vote for new NASN officers. Please see the following link: https://www.nasn.org/about-nasn/election

NJSSNA Executive Director, Rose Catton, MSN, RN, NJ/PA-CSN is working on many projects including the Health Schools Now coalition. Dr. Laura Jannone, EdD, RN, CSN-NJ, FNASN, has been instrumental in helping to make connections to secure funding for this critically important coalition to improve the health of the school environment.

The minutes of the December emergency meeting and this meeting will be available on the NJSSNA website after they have been approved by the NJSSNA Executive Board.