DISABLED STUDENTS TO GET NURSES; RULING COULD COST L.A. SCHOOLS $18 MILLION.

Byline: Sharline Chiang Daily News Staff Writer

Los Angeles school officials said the district will be hit hard financially by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Wednesday ordering public schools nationwide to provide disabled students with nurses during school hours.

An initial estimate put the Los Angeles Unified School District's cost at $18 million for as many as 300 students who could request the new service to attend school.

In Glendale and Burbank, school officials predicted the ruling would have little financial impact because so few students will need full-time nurses.

The 7-2 ruling stemmed from a case involving a quadriplegic Iowa teen-ager, whose family requested a nurse for the boy so he could attend regular school.

The court said nursing services count as student support and not medical treatment, and therefore must be publicly funded under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The act exempts districts from paying for medical treatment, which the court defined as doctor's services.

LAUSD officials complained the ruling is excessive and expensive.

``Either the law has got to be altered, or someone is going to have to find additional funding or else local school districts are going to go bankrupt,'' said LAUSD board member David Tokofsky. ``Since we're a big district, we can cover these costs easier. We'll just have less available for other programs.''

The LAUSD's $18 million a year estimate is based on the district's enrolling 200 to 300 students covered by the ruling and nurses costing more than $60,000 per student, according to Bonnie Garcia, attorney for the district's special education reform program known as the Chanda Smith Decree.

Garcia, who has been following the Iowa case for about five years, said since the law mandates full-time nurses, districts will not risk ``cutting corners'' by hiring attendants.

Placing certain handicapped students on campus could increase liability to the school and place pupils at a safety risk, he said.

``We have concerns that if they are so fragile that they require a nurse and not an attendant, then that is a medically fragile kid. All things assumed, we'd rather have them at home,'' Garcia said. ``That's a quality of care issue. That's a risk issue.''

The Cedar Rapids Community School District in Iowa must pay thousands of dollars a year to provide nursing care for Garret Frey, a ventilator-dependent quadriplegic who is now a high school sophomore.

Upon first glance, local advocates for the disabled rejoiced the ruling Wednesday.

``There is a cost impact to something like this . . . but society has to decide what it wants to fund for its most vulnerable citizens,'' said Nancy Graves, director of consumer services in the Ventura County office of the Tri-County Regional Center, which provides services to developmentally disabled people.

The National School Boards Association was less enthusiastic about the ruling.

``At the current time, the public educational system in this country is not adequately funded to provide full medical services for approximately 17,000 students with severe disabilities,'' said Anne L. Bryant, the group's executive director.

Daily News Staff Writer Mary Lou Aurelio and The Associated Press contributed to this story.