(a) As additional funding is made available for the school nurse program within the general appropriation acts, new school nurse positions may be created within the program. However, in order to ensure orderly, efficient, and effective development, expansion of the program shall occur incrementally and shall not, in any given year, exceed the level at which quality of service or standards of supervisory control may be lowered.

(b)

(1) Nurses within the program shall be administratively attached and assigned to the various county and district health departments or local education agencies (LEAs) across the state; however, such nurses shall remain under the supervisory control and direction of the executive director of the school nurse program.

(2) Until such time as the program shall employ school nurses in sufficient numbers to adequately provide services, i.e., a ratio of at least one (1) permanent, full time, school nurse per three thousand (3,000) students, but in no case, less than one (1) permanent, full time, school nurse for each county-wide system, to all LEAs, the executive director shall give priority in the assignment of school nurses to those health departments or LEAs that serve counties that are plagued by problems of poverty, unemployment and underemployment and are medically underserved to the greatest degree.

(c)

(1) In order to supplement the personnel resources otherwise available to the program, the executive director is authorized to enter into internship or residency agreements with any nursing school, accredited by the board of nursing, that offers a program of education and training for students preparing to become school nurses.

(2) In the event of any such agreement, the executive director shall formulate guidelines to ensure that the activities of the student nurses are appropriately supervised and reviewed by departmental personnel.