Parents Demand Immediate Freeze on Pilot Replacing School Medical Assistants with Nurses
Ahead of the new school year, the YehL Association for Food Allergy Consultation and Guidance sent a sharp letter on Wednesday to Education Minister Yoav Kish and his office, demanding an immediate halt to a pilot program replacing school medical assistants with nurses in some Israeli elementary schools. The association warned that if their demands are not addressed by August 30, they will file an urgent petition to the Supreme Court. The letter, sent through the association’s legal advisor Gilad Bar Tal, follows a Walla report revealing the pilot approved by the Ministries of Education and Health.
Starting in September, nurses will be stationed in ten elementary schools nationwide, replacing educational assistants who currently provide medical supervision to students. These nurses will also offer health services to all students at the schools. The association insists the Education Ministry must guarantee in writing that no child currently entitled to a medical assistant will lose their medical or environmental support. They also demand an urgent working meeting with representatives from the Education and Health Ministries before the pilot begins, arguing the program experiments on children without parental consent.
The pilot will deploy four nurses in schools in the Haifa and Jerusalem districts, four in central Israel, and two in areas where the Health Ministry directly operates services. Each nurse will work about 30 hours per week over five days. The program targets schools with at least three students requiring medical assistance and currently employing at least three full-time educational assistants. Nurses will care for students with life-threatening allergies, epilepsy, and diabetes, provide first aid to all students, and train educational staff. Students needing invasive medical treatments will continue receiving existing support.
Over 8,000 students currently qualify for medical assistance due to allergies, with the number of children entitled to medical assistants having increased twentyfold over 15 years. In the 2024-2025 school year, the Education Ministry allocated approximately 635 million shekels for medical assistants, with 523 million shekels for children with food allergies. While YehL opposes the pilot, the Israeli Association for Allergy and Clinical Immunology supports it, stating the current assistant model offers "partial, limited, and unprofessional" care, whereas school nurses can provide broader, more professional medical support to all students.
