Now Hiring! *SIGN ON BONUS THROUGH SEPTEMBER 2021*

Soaring Eagle Academy, a not for profit, ISBE approved therapeutic day school, serving students ages 3 through 21 years old, faced with the challenges of Autism, located in Lombard IL, is seeking a FULL TIME LICENSED REGISTERED or SCHOOL NURSE starting immediately, to work 7:30 to 3:00pm weekdays, in tandem with the part time nurse, for the 2021-22 school year. Applicant should be a caring and sympathetic individual able to multitask through a variety of difficult situations related to physical, mental, and emotional health needs. Possess excellent listening skills, able to instruct both students and adults about a variety of health issues and treatments. Organized and confident individual able to cope with potentially challenging situations.

Nursing and all staff work in-person in our school building 5 full days per week. SEA is following strict IDPH, CDC and ISBE COVID-19 guidelines including use of PPE, social distancing and hand washing/cleaning and sanitizing measures to the best of our ability.

•  TERMS OF EMPLOYMENT: Immediate (Students are in attendance for 220 school days, 181 regular days and 39 summer session days).  FULL TIME- Work an hourly regular full time schedule with hours Monday through Friday 7:30 to 3:00pm but may be asked to work additional hours as needed Work a total of 44.4 weeks per year since there are 6 weeks of non-student attendance. Those weeks and holiday days of non-student attendance are unpaid.  You may be asked to work some hours during breaks as warranted and will be compensated accordingly.
• BENEFITS: Eligible for medical and ancillary benefits for this full-time position. Benefits can include BCBS medical, with SEA contributing a portion of the total cost, employee funded dental and vision insurance benefits. Short-term, long-term disability insurance and a life insurance benefit are offered at no cost. 12 paid sick and personal days to be utilized by employee. Receive $250 reimbursement annually for continuing education.
• SALARY: Competitive hourly rate commensurate with experience and qualifications

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: 

• Work in tandem with the part-time registered nurse on staff.
• Perform nursing duties in person within the school building.
• Lead and support COVID-19 related practices, policies and protocols for students and staff.
• Serve on the COVID-19 Response Planning Committee, advising SEA leadership on the school’s response to COVID-19, as well as, developing policies and protocol as needed.
• Perform temperature and health screening checks as needed.
• Respond to student illness and symptoms possibly related to COVID19, following up as needed, in accordance with current guidance, policies and protocol.
• Review current student files for medical related information and communicate appropriate health information to staff.
• Review new student paperwork for medical related information, monitor all supplies (ex. Epi pen) needed on site and communicate appropriate health information to staff.
• Assist with, train staff in and provide student feedings with G-tubes as needed.

• Providing and/or delegating services including first aid, care for ill students, and emergency care to students and staff
• Acting as a liaison between home and school by communicating with parents regarding students’ health and safety needs
• Developing and maintaining healthcare plans for students who need special nursing interventions during the school day (ie seizure plans, asthma plans, allergy plans, diabetic plans, tube feeding plans)
• Maintain student health records 
• Provide health related education to students and staff in both individual and group settings
• Participate in school wide institute days
• Maintain daily communication through nursing notes with your supervisor and SEA leadership
• Determining the impact of students’ contagious illnesses and acting to prevent the spread of communicable diseases in the school setting.  
• Acting as a member of the school crisis team when needed
• Assist families with locating outside care and obtaining health insurance as needed.
• Administering and monitoring effectiveness of medications given at school
• Monitoring monthly attendance related to student absences/trends.
• Providing school staff with current information about students’ health concerns and care on a confidential need-to-know basis
• Communicating regularly with families to acquire up to date health information on each student
• Following up with families to receive doctors’ reports and information after a release is acquired. 
• Writing health updates for all scheduled IEP meetings
• Recommending modifications within the school environment for students that have health concerns.
• Attending and actively participating in Pods safety meetings when appropriate
• Maintaining confidentiality regarding all school and health related issues
• Assessing staff injuries and making professional recommendations on next steps
• Signing off on all staff injuries that occur within the building
• Signing off on all student injuries that occur within the building and communicating with parents.

• Work with leadership regarding medical information and medical needs of new students to ensure all information and supplies are at the academy.
• Review and monitor medical information submitted yearly for all students.
• Notify leadership on a weekly basis when necessary paperwork is not submitted.
• Contact parents with medically related questions after reviewing student files.
• Communicate appropriate health information obtained from student files and/or parent report/communication to staff.
• Adhere to HIPAA guidelines and standards in regard to confidentiality.
• Assist students and their families to obtain optimum health and well-being through education or referral
• Serve as an intermediary between school, home, and private physician regarding health status of students as needed.
• Interpret medical evaluations to parents, and staff and provide an understanding of implications for the educational performance of students. Ensure that all parents feel comfortable with plans in place to care for their child during school hours.
• Develop and provide training for school staff to support children with healthcare needs, e.g. first aid, asthma, diabetes, seizures or epilepsy. Ensure that staff feel comfortable with plans in place to care for students with medical concerns during school hours.
• Provide support and advice for parents, caregivers and staff on childhood illnesses and the management and control of infection and communicable diseases
• Develop and provide training related to the facility’s policy and procedures regarding student privacy and dignity, disposal of hazardous waste material, procedures for preventing the transmission of blood-borne pathogens, the use of non-violent crisis intervention procedures and the administration of medication.
• Recommend and implement school policies to comply with established health laws such as immunization laws, communicable disease etc.
• Educate staff in understanding students’ allergies, special diets keeping up to date lists of all allergies, diet restrictions, seizure plans and medications.
• Review all incident reports.
• Build relationships with students, always working to expand your relationship, to support regulation, interaction, comprehension, engagement and learning.
• Attune and respond to the students’ intentions providing meaning to their actions.
• Acknowledge and reflect on students’ feelings and behavior in a caring and respectful manner.
• Demonstrate appropriate and modulated affect for a variety of situations to facilitate interaction and learning.
• Ability to wear a facemask and all additional PPE as required at all times in the school building, even when social distance is maintained, except while drinking or eating.
• Ability to bend, kneel, sit (on a chair or the floor) and stand, moving easily and quickly from kneel to stand, sit to stand and stand to walk positions.
• Ability to walk up to a mile in distance.
• Ability to run to an urgent situation.
• Ability to lift up to 50 pounds easily.
• Ability to engage in and support physical activities initiated by a student including but not limited to, jumping, running, climbing, rolling, sitting/lying on the floor, swinging.
• Ability to act and respond to a student’s dysregulation/behavior/combative and aggressive actions (which may include unpredictable physical conduct by the student against you) according to the strategies developed in the student’s Individualized Regulatory Support Plan and Safety Plan.
• Ability to quickly move away from and avoid combative/aggressive actions or behaviors of students.
• Ability to physically follow in close proximity and support a student when he/she flees (runs) from a nursing intervention, an activity, an interaction or the learning environment.

 QUALIFICATIONS:

• Licensed by the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation as a Registered Nurse or hold a Professional Educator License as a School Nurse

• Direct experience with special needs population.
• Experience creating student/children healthcare plans including but not limited to seizure, allergy, asthma, tube feeding, etc.
• Experience creating and performing training presentations.
• Experience administering medication to a pediatric/special needs population.
• Experience creating health/medical status reports for special needs population according to state regulations.
• COVID-19 school/workplace and PPE compliance knowledge and experience.
• Willingness to gain knowledge in DIR® Methodology and developmental thinking.
• Ability to work with children and families demonstrating patience, kindness, compassion and empathy.
• Appreciate and respect each child’s challenges and accomplishments.
• Appreciate and respect each parent’s challenges and beliefs.
• Willingness to accept and request direction/guidance and suggestions from others.
• Ability to modulate and demonstrate affect appropriate to the situation to facilitate learning.
• Ability to build relationships with students, always working to expand your relationship, to support regulation, interaction, comprehension, engagement and learning.
• Ability to attune and respond to the students’ intentions providing meaning to their actions.
• Ability to acknowledge and reflect on students’ feelings and behavior in a caring and respectful manner.
• Proper professional well-groomed demeanor.

 Soaring Eagle Academy is a specialized therapeutic day school serving children and young adults with Autism and complex emotional and behavioral challenges, that may result in students becoming verbally and/or physically aggressive (in some cases without warning), within a fast paced, student and family-centered, highly relational and collaborative environment. 

 The Academy was founded by three Speech-Language Pathologists with an accumulation of over 80 years serving children and families with Autism and other related disorders, and a passion to showcase the amazing capacities of students with Autism to interact, communicate, think and learn. The academic and social programming is developed, expanded and supported by the SEA founders with support from the SEA Staff. We utilize a developmental language approach and developmental thinking, implementing DIR® Floortime principles, to understand and support students’ social and academic development. This is a unique opportunity to work with support staff, teachers and teacher assistants who understand developmental language, sensory processing and emotional development and how they impact children with autism. We believe that the “behaviors” others see as impacting education for these students are a result of their lack of comprehension and challenges to process sensory and social/emotional information from their environment and communication partners. With our appropriate interpretation of their intentions, our language-based strategies and emotional and sensory supports- our students are soaring. Join our team! For more information, please visit our website at www.soaringeagleacademy.org.  Please respond with your interest via the Indeed job posting.  Be prepared with your resume and valid nursing license and letters of reference. Thank you for your consideration.